EGYPTIAN  LIBRAR  ANS 


0i  flit  Wuntogiait  g 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Presented  by  13  r.  K L .Pott on  . 


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SOME  OLD  EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


* 


Some  Old  Egyptian 


Librarians 


BY 


y ■ 


Ernest  Cushing  Richardson 


New  York 

Charles  Scribner’s  Sons 

1911 


Copyright,  1QII,  by 
Ernest  Cushing  Richardson 


To 

G.  D.  E.  R. 


PREFACE 


The  first  of  these  papers  was  read  at 
the  meeting  of  the  New  York  Library 
Association,  held  at  Columbia  University, 
September  28,  1911;  the  second  contains 
matter  necessarily  omitted  from  the  first 
paper  from  limitations  of  time.  The 
papers  are  wholly  from  original  sources  in 
the  sense  that  no  statements  are  made  on 
the  authority  of  secondary  sources  and 
effort  has  been  made  to  use  only  transla- 
tions by  acknowledged  experts ; it  is, 
however,  founded  on  translations,  not  on 
the  original  texts.  A very  brief  ac- 
count of  the  best  or  most  accessible  of 
the  sources  used  is  given  in  the  appendix. 

Ernest  Cushing  Richardson. 
Princeton,  N.  J. 

September  twenty-ninth,  1911. 


CONTENTS 

I 

Some  Old  Egyptian  Librarians i 

II 

Supplementary  Paper 57 

III 

Sources 82 

IV 

Index  86 


I 


SOME  OLD 

EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

There  are  two  apologies  for  introduc- 
ing this  topic  at  a session  set  apart  for  col- 
lege librarians : first  because  the  moral  of 
the  paper  is  pointed  at  the  University  and 
second  because  there  is  some  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  Old  Egyptian  colleges 
were  conducted  in  libraries  and  by  librar- 
ians— were  in  short  library-universities  if 
not  university  libraries. 

That  the  schools  of  ancient  Egypt  were 
library-universities  in  the  sense  that  they 
were  held  in  libraries  by  librarians,  two 
examples  will  suggest.  In  the  famous 
first  Anastasi  Papyrus  (as  quoted  in  Er- 
man,  p.  380),  the  eloquent  son  of  Nen- 
nofre  describes  himself  as  “proficient  in 
the  sacred  writings  . . . powerful  in 

the  work  of  Seshait ; a servant  of  the  God 
[1] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


Thoth  in  the  House  of  Books  . . . 

teacher  in  the  Hall  of  Books”.  It  is  prob- 
ably not  necessary  to  explain  that  the 
House  of  Books  and  Hall  of  Books  and 
Case  of  Books  were  common  technical 
terms  for  the  library  according  as  a chest 
or  room  or  whole  building  was  applied  to 
the  purpose.  It  may  be  necessary  how- 
ever, to  explain  that  any  priest  of  the 
book-gods  Seshait  or  Thoth  was  by  that 
very  token  likely  to  be  a library  employee 
of  some  sort  even  when  it  is  not,  as  in  this 
case,  more  explicitly  described.  The  ser- 
vant of  Thoth  might,  of  course,  be  a 
writer  rather  than  a keeper  of  books,  but, 
in  the  earliest  dates,  the  servant  of  Thoth 
or  Seshait,  whether  found  acting  as 
author,  copyist,  or  architect,  was  also  a 
keeper  of  books.  We  have,  at  any  event, 
in  this  case,  clearly  a teacher  in  the  Hall 
of  Books  and  this  Hall,  with  equal  clear- 
ness, was  not  a scriptorium  but  the  place 
of  books  for  use.  It  is  worth  noting  in- 
[2] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


cidentally,  as  a side  light  on  the  librarians 
of  the  time,  that  this  librarian-professor 
says  “I  had  mounted  the  horse  that  be- 
longed to  me”,  which  may  indicate  that 
he  was  a man  of  athletic  tastes  or  the  con- 
trary, but  which  does  suggest  that  the  of- 
fice of  university  librarian  was  well 
enough  thought  of  (thousands  of  years 
ago)  to  pay  more  than  enough  for  the 
bare  necessaries  of  life. 

The  second  example  shows  that  the  pal- 
ace school  was  also  held  in  the  library, 
for  it  appears  that  when  King  Chufu’s 
grandson  went  to  school  he,  like  the 
children  of  plainer  parents  who  were 
brought  up  in  the  palace  with  the  royal 
children,  became  a “writer  in  the  House 
of  Books”.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  idea  of  an  education  in  the  earliest 
days  seems  to  have  been  chiefly,  or  wholly, 
bound  up  with  this  idea  of  writing.  The 
other  two  R’s  were  merely  incidental. 
Every  educated  man,  every  graduate  of  a 
[3l 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

sacred  college,  a palace  school  or  a Treas- 
ury school,  was  a scribe,  or  writer,  just 
as  everyone  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  a 
cleric,  or  clerk,  and  every  college  grad- 
uate used  to  be  a Bachelor  of  Arts.  He 
might  be  a military  or  treasury  or  stable, 
temple,  palace  or  library  scribe  but  if  he 
was  an  educated  man,  in  whatever  field, 
he  was  a “scribe”,  and  it  may  be  added, 
if  a scribe,  then  an  official  also. 

It  is  worth  while  adding  too  that  these 
old  library-universities  were  also  library 
schools  in  something  of  the  modern  sense, 
for  it  is  said  of  one  such  school  that  it 
was  for  the  training  of  “every  sort  of 
scribes”  and  this  must  have  included 
among  others  the  scribes  of  the  library. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  since  this  was  for 
education  in  all  the  projessions,  it  was  a 
true  university. 

As  for  the  other  excuse,  it  may  be  said 
that  to  any  one  who  has  watched  the  pro- 
gress of  excavation  work  in  the  eastern 
[4] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Mediterranean  region  during  the  past 
twenty  years,  in  view  of  the  College  cur- 
riculum and  of  graduate  studies,  it  be- 
comes increasingly  clear  that  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  at  least  must  soon  take  a much 
larger  place  in  University  thought  than 
they  now  do.  Granted  that  nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  Greek  in  the  matter  of 
finish  or  in  the  making  of  a polished 
mind,  yet  in  one  prime  element  of  human 
cultivation  something  has  arisen  which 
quite  supersedes  it.  This  is  the  element 
which  used  to  be  described  as  “antiquity” 
or  “antiquities”.  Polish  is  the  perfection 
of  education  in  two  dimensions  but  “an- 
tiquity” is  what  adds  the  third  dimension 
and  makes  a surface  a solid  body.  The 
history  of  human  civilization  having  now 
moved  back,  cultivated  men  must  have  a 
perspective  of  three  thousand  years  at 
least  more  than  Greece  or  Judea  can  give. 
Greek  has  become  a modern  language  and 
the  hey-day  of  Greek  history  was  far 
15] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

back  of  the  middle  point  between  oldest 
Egypt  and  to-day.  Library  histories  used 
to  begin  with  the  Alexandrian  library  but 
some  of  the  librarians  to  be  mentioned  to- 
day lived  longer  before  the  founder  of  the 
Alexandrian  library  than  the  latter  did  be- 
fore our  day.  Without  pretending  that 
the  Egyptian  language  can  compare  in 
culture  value  with  the  most  perfect  lan- 
guage ever  invented  for  the  expression  of 
occidental  ideas,  as  Greek  most  certainly 
is,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  the  archae- 
ology, at  least,  of  Egypt  is  quite  com- 
parable with  that  of  Greece  in  power,  if 
not  in  exquisiteness,  and  that  too  in  archi- 
tecture, social  or  civil  institutions  or  even 
moral  ideas,  if  indeed  the  best  of  the  philo- 
sophical ideas  of  Greece  were  not  also  bor- 
rowed from  Egypt  without  improvement. 
Add  to  this  the  sheer  antiquity  of  it  and 
you  have  an  element  of  undergraduate 
culture  which  cannot  long  be  neglected 
in  the  college  curriculum. 

[6] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

And  when  it  comes  to  post  graduate 
work  the  matter  is  more  obvious  still. 
Here  is  the  chance  now  to  quarry  out 
great  blocks  of  fresh  material  where  the 
classical  scholars  are,  even  with  their  awn 
great  finds  by  excavation,  hardly  more 
than  working  over  the  chips  of  former 
colossal  work  into  statuette  theses.  If 
universities  are  backward  in  this  fascinat- 
ing as  well  as  fundamental  field,  uni- 
versity librarians  must  share  the  blame 
with  the  rest.  While  they  cannot  go  very 
far  ahead  of  the  general  opinion  of  the 
university  in  getting  books,  they  can  at 
least  do  something  by  way  of  providing 
readable  books  for  undergraduates,  and 
they  can  at  least  do  research  work  as  to 
their  own  lines  in  these  fields. 

A chief  point  of  this  paper  is  therefore 
to  suggest  how  much  unworked  material 
there  is  about  library  matters  in  ancient 
Egypt.  The  very  excellent  article  on  li- 
braries in  the  new  Britannica  has  good, 
[7] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

though  still  scanty,  gleanings  from  this 
field,  but  in  general  it  is  very  little  worked. 
As  lately  as  1905  a very  excellent  writer 
in  a very  admirable  encyclopaedia  says 
that  the  most  ancient  library  of  which  we 
have  precise  knowledge  is  that  of  Assur- 
banipal  (668-626  B.C. ) and  that  while  in 
Egypt  there  must  have  been  collections 
of  papyrus  rolls  and,  while  Diodorus 
speaks  of  the  library  of  Ramses  II,  and 
two  officials  of  Ramses’  time  are  described 
as  librarians,  no  details  are  known  of  the 
early  Egyptian  libraries.  As  a matter  of 
fact  we  know  almost  as  much  about  the 
palace  library  of  Ikhnaton  in  say  1370 
B.C.  as  we  do  about  that  of  Assurbanipal 
— we  know  its  location  in  the  palace  and 
something  of  its  ground  plan  and  a couple 
of  hundred  of  the  tablet-books  contained 
are  still  extant.  What  is  more,  we  have  its 
official  name  and  the  still  existing  stamped 
bricks  on  which  it  is  called  “the  place  of 
the  records  of  the  palace  of  the  king”. 

[8] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

We  know  again  that  a certain  temple  li- 
brary, a hundred  years  before  that,  con- 
tained a certain  historical  work  on  a 
leather  roll  and  that  the  palace  library  of 
king  Nefirikere,  1300  years  earlier  still  or 
say  2750  B.C.,  had  medical  papyri  in 
portable  cases — which  shows  that  both 
palace  and  temple  libraries  were  more 
than  mere  archives — and  there  are  scores 
of  other  details  like  these. 

To  go  into  all  these  details  is,  however, 
too  big  a task  for  a short  paper  and  this 
one  therefore  proposes  to  limit  its  field, 
first,  by  cutting  out  details  of  libraries 
which  are  not  at  least  half  a millennium 
older  than  that  “oldest  library  of  which 
we  have  details”  (i.  e.  before  Assurbani- 
pal),  second,  by  excluding  details  con- 
cerning building,  books  and  methods  of 
administration  except  as  they  appear  in- 
cidentally ; third,  by  excluding  the  more 
doubtful  and  obscure  references,  and 
finally  it  is  to  be  feared  that  lack  of  time 
[9] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

may  make  it  necessary  to  cut  out  the  less 
interesting  and  informing  references. 

The  very  title  of  this  paper  has  amused 
some,  quite  as  if  they  thought  the  subject 
would  be  exhausted  by  the  sentence  “there 
were  none”,  but  nevertheless  the  paper  is 
in  sober  historical  earnest.  It,  in  fact, 
proposes,  among  other  things,  to  intro- 
duce to  you  by  name  and  date  and  with 
some  details  of  their  lives,  not  always 
wholly  without  piquancy,  twenty-one  li- 
brarians who  lived  long  before  Assur- 
banipal,  and  by  the  same  token,  much 
longer  before  the  Alexandrian  library  was 
founded.  Moreover  this  paper  makes  no 
pretence  of  exhaustiveness — it  is  only  a 
desultory  beginning  in  a rich  field.  It  is 
a mere  sample  so  to  speak  of  the  wealth 
of  material  which  has  not  yet  gotten  much 
into  the  encyclopaedias- — or  the  universi- 
ties. So  much  for  the  moral. 

If  this  account  of  Egyptian  librarians 
begins  with  the  librarians  of  the  gods, 
t io  1 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Thoth  and  Seshait  please  do  not  think  that 
the  paper  is  to  be  legendary  or  mytho- 
logical in  character;  on  the  contrary,  it 
will  deal  with  real  human  librarians  and 
the  genuine  historical  monuments  of  these 
librarians  in  papyri  or  inscriptions.  The 
mythological  librarians,  however,  have 
two  great  virtues:  first  they  embody  the 
philosophy  of  books  and  libraries  current 
among  the  Egyptians  and  second  these 
gods  were  in  fact  the  gods  of  the  librar- 
ians themselves,  seriously  worshipped  by 
them.  The  significance  of  this  latter  fact 
for  the  biographical  interpretation  of  his- 
torical human  librarians  is  very  great,  for 
as  a man’s  god  is,  so  is  he.  Tell  me  a 
man’s  god  and  I will  tell  you  the  char- 
acter of  the  man.  There  is  a sound  psy- 
chological reason  for  this,  since  a man’s 
god  is  that  on  which  his  thoughts  most 
dwell  (or  conversely  that  on  which  one’s 
thoughts  most  dwell  is  one’s  god)  and 
what  our  thoughts  dwell  upon  as  ideal 
[n] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

that  we  become.  And  if,  farther,  a man’s 
ideal  of  his  profession  is  made  personal, 
whether  that  person  be  human  or  divine, 
this  hero  worship,  or  god  worship,  works 
all  the  more  powerfully.  Not  to  know 
Thoth  is  thus  to  miss  the  key  to  the 
Egyptian  librarian,  for  Thoth  was  the 
ideal  of  the  Egyptian  librarian,  constantly 
in  his  mind  for  imitation. 

And  it  must  be  confessed  that  in  char- 
acter Thoth  is  not  a bad  ideal  for  any 
one — nor  in  activities  either,  for  that  mat- 
ter, though  one  must  pass  some  strictures 
on  that  feature  of  his  library  economy 
which  consisted  in  converting  so  far  as 
possible  all  his  library  into  kept  books  or 
secret  writings — caviar  to  the  general. 
Yet,  as  we  shall  see,  he  was  not  so  much 
the  god  of  the  private  library  and  confi- 
dential archives  as  he  was  public  librarian 
trying  to  issue  only  fit  books  to  fit  persons 
for  proper  use.  You  may  be  spared  the 
other  book  gods  since  when  they  act  as 
[ 12] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

book  gods  they  may  be  regarded  as  differ- 
ent manifestations  of  these  two,  but  of 
Seshait  and  of  Tlioth  it  is  needful  to 
know  something  in  order  to  understand 
the  mind  of  the  Egyptian  librarian. 

The  oldest  and  greatest  of  Egyptian  li- 
brarians was  then  the  god  Thoth,  the 
Moon  god,  Hermes  to  the  Greeks,  Mer- 
cury to  the  Romans,  Nabu  to  the  Baby- 
lonians, scribe  of  the  gods.  It  is  true  that 
Seshait,  the  wife  of  Thoth  is  hardly  less 
old  and  is  expressly  called  the  “Lady  of 
libraries’’,  but  if  Seshait  is  “Mistress  of. 
the  Hall  of  books’’  on  the  base  of  one  door 
of  the  library  of  the  Ramesseum,  Thoth, 
is  called  “Lord  of  the  Hall  of  Books’’  on 
the  other.  Those  therefore  who  take 
alarm  at  the  rapid  feminisation  of  libraries 
and  might  feel  badly  to  think  that  the 
patron  divinity  of  libraries  was  a goddess, 
may  take  comfort  in  the  fact  that  the 
great  god  of  libraries  was  in  truth  mascu- 
line and  Seshait  only  his  betttr  half — and 
[13] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

that  too  in  the  days  when  it  took  many 
individuals  to  make  one  better  half. 

Seshait  is  called  upon  the  monuments 
“She  who  draws  in  her  horns,  mistress  of 
writings,  mistress  of  building,  the  lady  of 
libraries”.  She  is  thus  patron  of  archi- 
tects as  well  as  of  librarians  and  she  is 
farther  the  goddess  of  history.  The  title 
“She  who  draws  in  her  horns”  has  been 
variously  explained  but,  remembering 
that  she  is  the  moon  goddess,  is  seems  to 
point  clearly  to  the  waxing  or  the  waning 
moon.  It  would  be  interesting  to  show 
how  in  her  character  of  Hathor  she  car- 
ries to  Ra  the  books  of  Thoth  as  a sort 
of  library  page,  and  also  to  trace  her  in 
Tefnut,  the  lion  goddess,  Nephthys  and 
all  her  other  forms,  but  time  forbids. 

As  for  Thoth,  a book  could  be  written 
on  his  librarian  aspects.  He  is  the  god  of 
learning,  numbering,  and  measuring,  giver 
of  written  words  “lord  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings”. He  is  founder  of  all  the  sciences, 
[ 14 1 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

creator  of  heaven  and  earth  by  his  words, 
the  god  who  raises  from  the  dead  also  by 
his  words,  and  who  weighs  and  records 
a man’s  deeds  at  the  final  judgment.  He 
personifies  expressions  of  all  sorts  as  Ho- 
rus  does  thought,  and  he  is  the  historical 
prototype  of  the  Logos  of  Plato,  Philo, 
and  St.  John. 

Two  chapters  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
(182-3)  are  hymns  to  Osiris,  supposed  to 
be  spoken  by  Thoth  himself,  and  in  these 
we  are  supposed  to  have  his  own  idea  of 
his  own  ideals.  “I  am  Thoth  the  perfect 
scribe”,  he  says,  “whose  hands  are  pure, 
who  opposes  every  evil  deed,  who  writes 
down  justice  and  who  hates  every  wrong, 
he  who  is  the  writing  reed  of  the  inviolate 
god,  the  lord  of  laws,  whose  words  are 
written  and  whose  words  have  dominion 
over  the  two  earths”. 

Note  that  Thoth  is  the  god  of  righteous- 
ness, lord  of  laws ; and  note  that  the  writ- 
ten words  have  dominion.  Later  this 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

came  to  relate  to  the  magic  which  played 
so  great  a part  in  Egyptian  life.  Books 
were  kept  from  the  common  people  be- 
cause the  written  words  gave  superhuman 
power.  Later  you  will  hear  of  a librarian 
who  possibly  lost  his  life  because  he  in- 
cautiously and  contrary  to  the  rules  loaned 
out  a book  of  magic  to  the  wrong  per- 
sons. 

Again  Thoth  says  “I  am  Thoth  the 
favorite  of  Ra  . . . the  lord  of  laws, 
who  pacifies  the  two  earths  by  the  power 
of  his  wisdom  . . . who  drives  away 
enmity  and  dispels  quarrels”  . . . 

Mr.  Carnegie,  you  see,  was  not  the  first 
to  unite  the  patronage  of  libraries  with  a 
propaganda  of  arbitration  in  both  hemi- 
spheres. 

Once  more  Thoth  says : “I  am  the  lord 
of  justice,  the  witness  of  right  before  the 
gods ; I direct  the  words  so  as  to  make  the 
wronged  victorious ; I am  Thoth  the  lord 
of  justice,  who  giveth  victory  to  him  who 
[ 16 } 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

is  injured  and  who  taketh  the  defense  of 
the  oppressed.” 

A noble  practical  ideal  for  any  librarian 
is  it  not?  And  after  all  is  not  this  the 
very  key  note  of  real  education?  It  is, 
always  has  been,  and,  by  the  nature  of 
things,  everlastingly  must  be  true  that 
learning  is  the  irresistible  weapon  of  the 
weak  against  the  strong  and  the  strong 
against  the  stronger — not  learning  for  it- 
self but  learning  dominated  by  a burning 
zeal  for  justice  and  righteousness,  the 
“two  truths”  of  Thoth.  In  the  present 
social  unrest,  economics  is  not  the  key- 
word of  salvation  but  learning  bent  on 
justice  and  on  righteousness. 

Again  Thoth  says:  “I  have  come  to 
thee;  my  hands  bring  (Truth)  Maat;  my 
heart  does  not  contain  any  falsehood;  I 
offer  the  Maat  before  thy  face;  I know 
her;  I swear  by  her.” 

This  interesting  passion  for  truth  is  a 
constant  note  in  the  Egyptian  inscriptions 
[ 17] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

and  corresponds  with  the  finest  spirit  of 
modern  science  while  it  points  also  to  the 
foundation  sore  of  modem  social  condi- 
tions— the  decay,  not  of  regard  for  public 
law,  but  regard  for  that  law  which  a man 
makes  for  himself  by  giving  his  word. 

Finally  Thoth  says:  “I  have  dispelled 
darkness  and  driven  away  the  storm;  I 
have  given  the  sweet  breaths  of  the  North 
. . . I give  Ra  to  set  as  Osiris  and 

Osiris  to  be  setting  as  Ra.  I give  him  to 
enter  the  mysterious  cave  in  order  to  re- 
vive the  heart  of  him  whose  heart  is  mo- 
tionless.” “I  am  Thoth,  who  giveth  Osi- 
ris victory  over  his  enemies;  I am  Thoth 
who  prepares  tomorrow  and  also  foresees 
what  will  come  afterwards;  his  action  is 
not  in  vain  when  he  settles  what  is  in  the 
sky,  the  earth,  and  the  Tuat,  and  when  he 
gives  life  to  the  future  ones.” 

It  is  too  long  a story  to  tell  how  Ra, 
the  Sun-god,  setting  as  Osiris  becomes 
Thoth,  the  moon  god,  who  in  turn  sets  in 
[ 18  ] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

the  rising  sun  of  the  new  day,  and  how 
this  is  applied  to  death  and  the  resurrec- 
tion. It  is  still  less  possible  to  set  forth 
in  detail  how  the  spirit  which  revives  the 
heart  of  the  dead  is  knowledge,  or  how, 
when  Thoth  gives  life  to  the  future  ones, 
it  is  by  means  of  Truth  and  through  the 
agency  of  writings,  but  the  whole  story 
up  to  the  final  judgment  in  the  hall  of  the 
Two  Truths  and  the  everlasting  life  where 
Truth  is  food  and  drink  for  the  immortals 
is  one  of  profound  and  noble  symbolism, 
fascinating  in  interest  to  book  lovers. 

The  symbols  of  Thoth  are  the  ibis  or 
ibis-headed  man  and,  what  is  a bit  pain- 
ful at  first  sight  to  librarians,  the  ape. 
There  is  not  time  to  expound  the  many 
and  subtle  ideas  which  turn  in  and  around 
the  various  aspects  or  incarnations  of 
Thoth — even  to  dwell  a little,  as  was  in- 
tended, on  his  seven  assistants,  who  may 
be  supposed  to  be  the  patron  gods  of  sub- 
librarians. As  a sample,  however,  a few 
[ 19] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

words  about  the  ape-symbol  may  be  par- 
doned. 

These  “cynocephalous  apes”  were,  you 
remember  to  begin  with,  real  apes,  really 
worshipped.  They  are  the  lords  of  writ- 
ing, of  music,  of  the  sciences,  and  the  to- 
tem so  to  speak  of  the  library  tribe.  They 
stand  for  Thoth,  for  the  full  moon,  and 
for  the  sun  at  the  equinox.  At  first  sight, 
as  has  been  said,  it  is  a bit  shocking  to 
find  one’s  trade  symbolized  by  the  monkey 
tribe,  but  when  one  looks  at  the  facts  and 
considers  how  the  Egyptians  looked  at 
them,  there  is  balm  in  Gilead,  for  it  will 
be  remembered  that  most  of  the  Egyp- 
tian gods  had  their  symbols  and  we  may, 
to  begin  with,  comfort  ourselves  with  the 
fact  that  Seshait,  in  one  of  her  forms,  is 
the  lion  goddess.  Moreover,  if  the  cow, 
the  cat,  the  dog,  the  jackal,  were  honor- 
able symbols,  much  more  so  the  ape,  high- 
est of  all  animals  in  intelligence.  And, 
indeed,  this  is  what  the  Egyptians  meant, 
[20] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

for  the  apes  were  used  as  symbol  because 
the  Egyptians  said  there  was  a certain  race 
of  apes  which  knew  how  to  write.  When, 
therefore,  they  chose  their  specimens  to 
serve  them  as  gods,  the  priests  would  give 
pen  and  ink  to  them  to  try  them  and  see 
if  they  belonged  to  the  right  race.  There 
is,  Lanzone  says,  a legend  among  the 
Arabs  to-day  that  the  apes  formerly  knew 
how  to  write,  but  for  their  sins  had  had 
the  power  withdrawn  by  the  Creator.  It 
would  be  a little  rash  to  say  that  the 
Egyptians  invented  the  Darwinian  hypo- 
thesis, but  in  these  days  when  the  com- 
parative psychologists  have  taken  away 
speech  and  even  reason  as  distinctive  of 
man  and  have  left  to  him  as  distinctive 
only  the  ability  to  permanently  record  his 
thoughts  in  writing,  it  is  of  interest  to 
note  that  the  Egyptians  had  singled  out 
writing  as  characteristic  of  that  missing 
link,  the  lost  race  of  the  writing  ape.  It 
only  remains  for  some  wise  person  to 
[21  ] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

show  that  the  pithecanthropos  of  Haeckel 
and  the  lost  cynocephalous  ape  are  one  and 
we  may  offer  farther  this  bibliographical 
contribution  to  the  research.  In  Egyptian 
lore,  the  ape  not  only  writes,  but  sits  upon 
the  middle  point  of  the  balances,  standing 
thus  for  equilibrium,  and,  further,  in  his 
astronomical  aspect  he  is  the  equinox, 
from  which  two  things  it  is  an  easy  step 
to  see  in  him  the  missing  link  between 
man  and  animal,  as  in  his  character  of 
moon  god  he  is  the  link  between  Turn,  the 
setting  sun,  and  Shu,  the  rising  sun. 
These  four  apes,  harbingers  of  the  day, 
who  sit  upon  the  prow  of  the  barque  of 
Ra  and  live  upon  truth,  are  Thoth,  the 
moon  god,  Lord  of  Truth. 

Passing  thus,  strictly  according  to  the 
manner  of  modern  evolution,  from  the 
gods  upward  to  man,  by  way  of  the  ape, 
we  come  to  the  human  librarians. 

The  earliest  systematic  history  known 
to  literature  is  the  bode  of  annals  of  the 
[22] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Egyptian  kings  found  on  the  Palermo 
stone.  Although  the  work  in  its  present 
form  dates  only  from  2721  B.C.,  the  part 
containing  the  history  of  the  early  dynas- 
ties back  to  3400  is  known,  from  linguistic 
and  chronological  evidence,  to  be  contem- 
porary with  the  events  recorded.  The 
work  is  therefore  a true  chronicle  or 
journal,  like  the  Hebrew  book  of  days  or 
the  annals  of  Thutmose  III.  In  this 
chronicle,  about  fifteen  years  before  ffie 
end  of  the  first  dynasty,  or  about  3200 
B.C.  it  is  officially  recorded  that  the  priest 
of  Seshait  “stretched  the  cord’’  for  the 
house  called  Thrones-of-the-gods,  the  de- 
sign for  which  had  been  prepared  the  pre- 
vious year.  This  recalls  the  fact  that  a 
dozen  centuries  later  under  Sesostris  I,  at 
the  beginning  of  a temple  in  Heliopolis, 
it  was  “the  scribe  of  the  sacred  book”  who 
stretched  the  cord.  This  ceremony  of 
stretching  the  cord  or  laying  out  the 
ground  plan  of  the  temple,  corresponded 
[23] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


to  our  ceremony  of  laying  the  corner- 
stone, and  in  later  times  it  seems  always 
to  have  been  performed  by  the  king  him- 
self. In  these  earlier  times,  however,  the 
process  seems  to  have  been  conducted  by 
the  architect.  The  priest  of  Seshait  was, 
as  before  noticed,  always  a librarian-ar- 
chitect in  those  days  and  the  two  cere- 
monies, one  about  3200  B.C.  and  one 
about  2000  (say  1980)  B.C.  were  prac- 
tically the  same,  although  in  the  one  case 
it  was  the  priest  of  Seshait  and  in  the 
other  the  scribe  of  the  sacred  book,  that 
is  the  librarian  of  the  secret  books  of 
Thoth,  who  performed  the  ceremony.  The 
designing  of  the  previous  year,  like  all 
such  designing,  as  will  be  seen,  was  doubt- 
less preceded  by  a careful  study  in  the 
libraries  of  the  necessary  conditions  and 
was  doubtless  done  in  the  House  of  Books 
and  under  the  direction  of  the  anony- 
mous priest  who  ‘‘stretched  the  cord”. 

Just  before  the  time  when  these  an- 
[24] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

nals  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  end, 
or  about  2750  B.  C.,  lived  Henhathor 
“scribe  of  the  king’s  records”,  the  son  of 
Nekonetkh  “king’s  confident  to  Userkaf”, 
first  king  of  the  fifth  dynasty.  He  is  men- 
tioned  in  three  documents  and  with  him, 
on  a certain  statute  of  his  father,  is  men- 
tioned also  an  “inferior  scribe  of  the 
king’s  records” — the  librarian  thus  and 
the  assistant  librarian  of  the  king’s  ar- 
chives. Henhathor’s  father  in  these  docu- 
ments bequeathes  his  office  and  the  land 
which  went  with  it  to  be  divided  between 
his  sons,  each  to  have  the  office  of  priest 
a month  about,  but,  inasmuch  as  there 
were  thirteen  sons,  one  month  and  its  land 
had  to  be  divided  between  two,  and  quite 
properly  as  we  may  think  the  librarian 
son  seems  to  have  been  the  favored  one 
and  made  residuary  heir  of  all  the  father’s 
estate  or  was  it  perhaps  because  he  was  the 
most  needy  ? 

The  most  powerful  man  at  the  court  of 
[25] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

King  Dedkere-Isesi  (2683-2655  B.  C.) 
was  the  “chief  judge,  vizier,  chief  archi- 
tect, chief  scribe  of  the  king’s  writings, 
Senezemib”,  a not  uncommon  combination 
of  titles  which  the  king  himself  uses  of 
him  in  a letter  concerning  his  plans  for  a 
lake  (or  garden)  in  the  palace  Isesi.  In 
the  inscription  put  upon  the  tomb  of  Sene- 
zemib by  his  son  Mehi  it  tells  how  Sene- 
zemib as  “master  of  secret  things  of  his 
majesty”  attended  his  majesty  while  he 
was  in  the  place  of  writings.  The  editor 
remarks  in  a note  that  the  king  thus 
“visited  the  public  archives  in  company 
with  the  vizier”,  but,  while  it  was  the 
vizier  who  accompanied  him,  it  was,  of 
course,  in  his  capacity  of  chief  librarian 
that  he  did  so. 

It  may  be  remarked  at  this  point  that 
the  king’s  court  or  council  (of  thirty?) 
seems  always,  during  a good  part  of 
Egyptian  history,  to  have  included  ex- 
officio  the  chief  librarian  of  the  palace  ar- 
[26] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

chives  and  a librarian  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings. We  have  here  the  case  where  one 
of  them  attained,  as  several  later  did,  the 
supreme  honor  of  being  the  king’s  vizier. 
It  should  be  noted  also  that  Senezemib 
was  chief  judge,  for  this  has  its  bearing 
in  the  later  biographies,  where  librarians 
appear  as  judges  in  criminal  cases. 

Senezemib’s  son  built  for  him  a tomb, 
which  took  a year  and  three  months  in 
building,  and  he  provided  also  a suitable 
endowment  for  keeping  up  the  proper 
religious  rites  connected  with  it.  This 
endowment  included  the  support  of  mor- 
tuary priests  to  make  the  usual  offerings 
and  apparently  included  a perpetual  grant 
by  the  king  for  the  offerings,  confirmed 
by  royal  decree  sealed  “with  the  seal  of 
writing”.  The  son  had  this  deed  of  en- 
dowment “put  into  writing”  and  doubtless 
properly  recorded  in  the  record  office,  but 
it  was  also,  as  he  says,  “engraved  by  the 
artists”  on  the  walls  of  the  tomb  together 
1 27  ] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

with  the  two  letters  which  the  “king  him- 
self” wrote  with  his  own  fingers  in  order 
to  praise  Senezemib,  and  an  account  of  his 
searching  with  him  in  the  library  in  the 
preliminary  investigations  concerning 
matter  of  the  artificial  lake. 

Just  about  one  hundred  years  later  in 
the  reign  of  King  Pepi  I (2590-2570), 
Khenu,  the  scribe  of  the  king’s  records, 
appears  as  member  of  an  expedition  to 
Hammamat  to  secure  stone  for  Pepi’s 
pyramid  at  Sakkara. 

Under  the  second  King  Pepi  (2566- 
2476),  who  followed  the  first  Pepi  after 
an  interim  of  4 years,  an  overseer  of  the 
king’s  records  again  attains  the  viziership. 
Zau,  the  son  of  Khui,  and  his  wife,  Nebet, 
was  overseer  of  the  king’s  records,  chief 
justice,  and  vizier  like  Senezemib,  but  it 
does  not  appear  from  the  inscriptions  that 
he  was  architect  or  had  any  relationship 
with  the  public  works.  He  was  doubly 
a “prophet”,  chief  ritual  priest,  sem 
[28] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

priest,  wearer  of  the  royal  seal,  and  mas- 
ter of  all  wardrobes. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  he  is  master  of 
all  wardrobes.  Some  wardrobes  were 
certainly  true  wardrobes  in  that  they  con- 
tained the  ritual  garments  of  the  gods,  and 
it  was  one  of  the  duties  of  the  master  of 
the  wardrobe  to  clothe  the  image  of  the 
god  at  the  public  festivals,  but  the  ward- 
robes contained  also  the  secret  things  in 
general,  including  probably  “the  secret 
writings”  so  often  mentioned.  Indeed, 
the  wardrobes  were  likely  the  treasure 
chests  such  as  in  later  times  and  other 
lands  contained  clothing  or  books  or  any 
other  treasure.  This,  however,  is  to  be 
taken  as  probable  rather  than  proved. 

This  Prince  Zau  had  five  brothers,  all 
named  Zau,  and  two  sisters,  both  named 
Enekhnes-Merire,  both  of  whom  were 
married  to  King  Pepi  I.  One  of  these 
sisters  was  the  mother  of  King  Mernere, 
successor  of  Pepi,  and  the  other  of  Pepi 
[29] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

II  who  was,  therefore,  nephew  of  Zau. 
From  this  it  is  clear  that  this  “overseer 
of  the  king’s  records”  did  not  lack  for  in- 
fluence. It  appears  that  he  was  already 
living  in  the  reign  of  Pepi  I,  but  when  he 
died  it  is  hard  to  say  even  approximately. 
Evidently  he  died  in  the  reign  of  Pepi 
II,  which  began  in  2566,  but  as  Pepi’s 
reign  is  the  longest  in  all  history,  covering 
ninety  years,  it  does  not  fix  the  date  of  his 
death  within  very  narrow  limits. 

During  the  next  five  hundred  years 
there  were  doubtless  librarians  but  the 
writer  of  this  paper  has  not  yet  found 
any  sure  reference  to  them).  Then  comes 
the  anonymous  Scribe  of  the  Sacred  Book 
who  stretched  the  cord  for  the  temple  in 
Heliopolis,  as  before  mentioned,  and  as 
recorded  on  a leather  roll,  copied  five  hun- 
dred years  after  from  the  lost  inscription 
of  Sesostris  I,  recording  how  the  king  in 
1977  B.  C.  called  together  his  court  to 
consider  building  or  rebuilding  a temple 
[30] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

to  the  Sun  God.  As  has  been  already 
suggested  and  as  will  later  appear  spe- 
cifically in  regard  to  such  undertakings, 
there  was  undoubtedly  one,  if  there  were 
not  two,  librarians  among  the  “compa- 
nions of  the  court”  with  whom  the  king 
took  counsel  at  this  time,  and  indeed  it 
appears  that  it  was  of  the  librarians  that 
he  first  took  counsel. 

Shortly  after  this  and  during  the  same 
reign  of  Sesostris  I,  Mentuhotep,  master 
of  secret  things  of  the  house  of  sacred 
writings  and  also  master  of  the  king’s 
writings  of  the  royal  presence  as  well  as 
secret  things  of  the  “divine  words”  (or 
hieroglyphics)  and  prophet  of  Maat, 
(goddess  of  truth)  became  vizier  and 
chief  judge.  Mentuhotep  conducted  the 
work  in  the  temple  and  on  the  sacred 
barque,  dug  the  lake,  and  masoned  the 
well  at  Abvdos.  A tomb  was  built  for 
him  by  royal  decree  at  Abydos,  recording, 
in  the  language  of  the  decree,  “all  thy 
[31] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

offices  and  all  pleasing  things  which  thou 
didst”.  These  inscriptions  are  so  filled 
through  and  through  with  references  to 
his  proceeding  and  his  ideals,  so  obviously- 
colored  by  the  examples  of  Thoth,  that 
it  is  worth  reading  in  full  this  biographical 
record. 

Inscriptions  of  Mentuhotep: 

Hereditary  prince,  vizier  and  chief 
judge,  attached  to  Nekhen,  prophet  of 
Maat  (goddess  of  Truth),  giver  of  laws, 
advancer  of  offices,  confirming  the  bound- 
ary records,  separating  a land-owner 
from  his  neighbor,  pilot  of  the  people,  sat- 
isfying the  whole  land,  a man  of  truth 
before  the  Two  Lands,  hereditary  prince 
in  judging  the  Two  Lands,  supreme  head 
in  judgment,  putting  matters  in  order, 
wearer  of  the  royal  seal,  chief  treasurer, 
Mentuhotep. 

Hereditary  prince,  count,  chief  of  all 
works  of  the  king,  making  the  offerings 
of  the  gods  to  flourish,  setting  this  land 
. . . according  to  the  command  of  the 

[32] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


god  . . . sending  forth  two  brothers 

satisfied  with  the  utterances  of  his  mouth, 
upon  whose  tongue  is  the  writing  of 
Thoth,  more  accurate  than  the  weight, 
likeness  of  the  balances,  fellow  of  the  king 
in  counseling  . . . , giving  attention 

to  hear  words,  like  a god  in  his  hour, 
excellent  in  heart,  skilled  in  his  fingers, 
exercising  an  office  like  him  who  holds  it, 
favorite  of  the  king  before  the  Two 
Lands,  his  beloved  among  the  companions, 
powerful  amtong  the  officials,  having  an 
advanced  seat  to  approach  the  throne  of 
the  king,  a man  of  confidences  to  whom 
the  heart  opens. 

Hereditary  prince  over  the 
(royal)  castle,  finding  the  speech  of  the 
palace,  knowing  that  which  is  in  every- 
body (heart),  putting  a man  into  his  real 
place,  finding  matters  in  which  there  is 
irregularity,  giving  the  lie  to  him  that 
speaks  it,  and  the  truth  to  him  that  brings 
it,  giving  attention,  without  an  equal, 
good  at  listening,  profitable  in  speaking, 
an  official  loosening  the  (difficult)  knot, 
whom  the  king  (lit.,  god)  exalts  above 


[33] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


millions,  as  an  excellent  man,  whose  name 
he  knew,  true  likeness  of  love,  free  from 
doing  deceit,  whose  steps  the  court  heeds, 
overthrowing  him  that  rebels  against  the 
king,  hearing  the  house  of  the  council  of 
thirty,  who  puts  his  terror  among  the 
barbarians  when  he  has  silenced  the  Sand- 
dwellers,  pacifying  the  rebels  because  of 
their  deeds,  whose  actions  prevail  in  the 
two  regions,  lord  of  the  Black  Land  and 
the  Red  Land,  giving  commands  to  the 
South,  counting  the  [number]  of  the  . 
. . of  the  Northland,  in  whose  brilliance 
all  men  move,  pilot  of  the  people,  giver 
of  food,  advancing  offices,  lord  of  designs, 
great  in  love,  associate  of  the  king  in  the 
great  castle,  hereditary  prince,  count,  chief 
treasurer,  Mentuhotep,  he  says : 

“I  am  a companion  beloved  of  his  lord, 
doing  that  which  pleases  his  god  daily, 
prince,  count,  sem  priest,  master  of  every 
wardrobe  of  Horus,  prophet  of  Anubis  of 
. . . the  hry  ydb,  Mentuhotep,  prince 

in  the  seats  of  ‘Splendor’,  at  whose  voice 
they  (are  permitted  to)  speak  in  the  king’s 
house,  in  charge  of  the  silencing  of  the 


[34] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


courtiers,  unique  one  of  the  king,  without 
his  like,  who  sends  up  the  truth  to  the 
palace,  great  herald  of  good  things,  alone 
great,  sustaining  alive  the  people.  One 
to  whom  the  great  come  in  obeisance  at 
the  double  gate  of  the  king’s-house ; at- 
tached to  Nekhen,  prophet  of  Maat,  pillar 
[before]  the  Red  Land,  overseer  of  the 
western  highlands,  leader  of  the  magnates 
of  South  and  North,  advocate  of  the  peo- 
ple . . . , merinuter  priest,  prophet 

of  Horus,  master  of  secret  things  of  the 
house  of  sacred  writings,  governor  of  the 
(royal)  castle,  prophet  of  Harkefti,  great 
lord  of  the  royal  wardrobe,  who  ap- 
proaches the  limbs  of  the  king,  overseer 
of  the  double  granary,  overseer  of  the 
double  silverhouse,  overseer  of  the  double 
gold-house,  master  of  the  king’s  writings 
of  the  (royal)  presence,  wearer  of  the 
royal  seal,  sole  companion,  master  of  se- 
cret things  of  the  ‘divine  words’  (hiero- 
glyphics), chief  treasurer,  Mentuhotep.” 

In  the  reign  of  Sesostris  III  (1887- 
1849)  a certain  Sehetepibre  was  obviously 

[35] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

a successor  to  Mentuhotep,  for  he  copied 
much  of  the  latter’s  epitaph  word  for 
word  on  his  own  tombstone.  He  was 
“Master  of  secret  things’’,  but  it  is  not 
expressly  said  that  these  included  the  se- 
cret writings. 

In  the  second  year  of  king  Neferhotep 
(probably  not  very  long  after  1788)  his 
nfajesty  “spake  to  the  nobles  and  compa- 
nions” who  were  in  his  suite  “the  real 
scribes  of  the  hieroglyphics,  the  masters 
of  all  secrets”  (saying)  “my  heart  hath 
desired  to  see  the  ancient  writings  of 
Atum,  open  ye  for  me  for  a great  investi- 
gation”. These  writings  of  Atum  were, 
it  seems,  in  the  temple  at  Heliopolis.  So 
these  companions  said  . . . “Let  thy 

majesty  proceed  to  the  libraries  (house 
of  writings  or  rolls)  and  let  thy  majesty 
see  every  hieroglyph.”  “His  majesty  pro- 
ceeded to  the  library.  His  majesty  open- 
ed the  rolls,  together  with  these  compa- 
nions. Lo,  his  majesty  found  the  rolls  of 
[36] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

the  house  of  Osiris  . . . lord  of 

Abydos.”  Travelling  thus  from  Thebes 
to  Heliopolis  the  king  examined  the  books 
in  the  library  with  his  librarians,  got  the 
information  which  he  wished,  as  to  how 
rightly  to  prepare  the  temple  of  Osiris 
and  gave  orders  to  have  things  carried 
out  accordingly.  [Note  here  what  we 
have  before  observed  that  the  two  librar- 
ians appear  in  his  court  officially,  among: 
his  nobles  and  companions.] 

The  next  three  hundred  years,  includ- 
ing the  troubled  Hyksos  period,  is  barren 
of  librarian  references,  if  not  of  librarians. 
It  is  in  this  Hyksos  time  that  Joseph  was 
in  Egypt,  if  indeed  he  ever  was  or  was  in 
Egypt.  Then  in  the  reign  of  Thutmose 
III  came  Senmut. 

In  this  reign  (say  1501-1447  B.  C.) 
there  was  a most  interesting  and  famous 
historical  struggle  between  Queen  Hatsh- 
epsut,  daughter  of  Thutmose  I,  and  Thut- 
mose III.  The  mother  of  Hatshepsut, 
137] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Ahmose,  was  daughter  of  the  old  royal 
line  and  it  was  through  her  that  the  title 
of  Thutmose  I came.  After  the  death  of 
Thutmose  I,  it  was  a great  struggle  as  to 
whether  Hatshepsut  should  be  Queen  or 
some  son  of  the  king’s  other  wives,  hav- 
ing no  right  of  succession.  As  the  his- 
torian says,  “Thutmpse  III,  who  was 
son  of  the  king  by  an  obscure  wife,  as 
a young  prince  of  no  prospects  had  been 
placed  in  the  Karnak  temple  as  a priest 
with  the  rank  of  prophet.”  The  matter 
seems  to  have  been  compromised  by  marri- 
age between  the  two  which  did  not  end, 
however,  but  rather  began  the  feud  of 
the  Thutmosids.  Thutmose  kept  trying  to 
limit  the  honors  of  Hatshepsut  and  she 
on  the  other  hand  succeeded,  now  and 
then,  in  putting  him  into  the  background. 
Thutmose  was  compelled  by  the  adherents 
of  Hatshepsut  to  make  her  co-regent. 
This  Queen  Hatshepsut  is  called  the  “first 
great  woman  in  history”,  and  “the  most 
[38] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

powerful  noble”  among  her  followers  was 
Senmut.  He  was  not  vizier,  but  it  is 
said  that  he  “all  but  held  that  office”.  It 
is  farther  said  that  no  doubt  the  success 
of  the  Queen’s  career  was  largely  due  to 
him.  Senmut  was  a prophet  and  thought 
it  worthy  of  record  that  “he  had  access 
to  all  the  writings  of  the  prophets”.  He 
was  “master  of  secret  things  in  the  tem- 
ple” and  he  was  royal  tutor  to  the  young 
princess  Nefrure.  This  combination  of 
prophet,  tutor,  master  of  secret  things, 
and  more  especially  the  fact  of  his  access 
to  the  secret  writings  which  were  in  the 
charge  of  the  prophets  of  whom  he  was 
himself  one,  point  pretty  clearly  to  a li- 
brarianship.  The  editors  of  his  inscrip- 
tion remark  it  as  interesting  that  he  has 
put  an  archaic  text,  evidently  taken  from 
these  secret  writings,  on  his  own  tomb- 
stone. 

During  this  same  reign  of  Thutmose 
III,  there  appears  on  the  tomb  of  the 
139] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

famous  vizier,  Rekhmire,  a new  class  of 
alleged  special  librarians.  In  the  extreme- 
ly interesting  description  of  the  duties  of 
a vizier,  mention  is  made  of  the  viziers 
and  what  is  supposed  to  be  the  keepers  of 
the  viziers’  records  but  what,  on  the  face, 
seems  clearly  to  refer,  not  to  the  keepers 
of  the  viziers’  records,  but  to  the  keepers 
of  other  libraries.  It  appears  from  the 
account  that,  in  acting  as  chief  judge  in 
the  conducting  of  a trial,  the  vizier  might 
often  have  occasion  to  send  to  various 
libraries  or  halls  of  records,  and  it  pre- 
scribes that  any  writing  sent  for  by  him 
from  any  hall  shall,  if  it  does  not  prove 
to  be  a confidential  writing,  be  taken 
to  him  with  certificates  of  the  keepers, 
sealed  by  the  officers  and  the  scribes  as 
well.  After  use  it  is  to  be  sealed  with 
the  seal  of  the  vizier  and  returned  to  its 
place,  but  it  is  added:  “If  he  furthermore 
ask  for  a confidential  writing,  then  let  it 
not  be  taken  by  the  keepers  thereof.” 

1 40  ] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Whether  this  account  relates  to  the  vizier’s 
librarians  or  not,  there  is  specific  account 
of  such  librarians  later. 

Rekhmire,  himself  a vizier,  was  master 
of  secret  things  in  the  temple  of  Amon, 
as  well  as  vizier,  judge,  superintendent 
of  the  prophets  and  priests,  and  chief  of 
the  six  chief  courts  of  justice.  It  may  be 
remarked  at  this  point  that  the  chief  judge 
was  also,  as  chief  judge,  a sort  of  librarian 
in  that  he  had  charge  of  the  forty  books 
of  the  law — the  forty  “skins”  or  leather 
rolls  of  the  law  which  the  vizier  must, 
according  to  these  rules,  have  open  before 
him  when  the  court  was  in  session.  Rekh- 
mire, himself,  is,  in  fact,  depicted  in  this 
tomb  with  the  forty  rolls  before  him — - 
the  picture  of  a book  collection  from  the 
15th  century  B.  C. 

During  this  period  and  later  there  are 
many  references  to  recorders  and  to  the 
scribes  of  recorders  and  these  references 
perhaps  imply  local  records,  but  it  is  ex- 
[ 41 1 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

pressly  said  in  these  inscriptions  of  Rekh- 
mire  that  the  records  of  the  nome,  or 
county,  are  kept  in  the  vizier’s  hall  and 
it  will  be  safer  for  us  to  count  the  record- 
ers and  their  scribes  as  clerks  doing  the 
recording  rather  than  librarians  in  charge 
of  the  records. 

One  of  the  most  famous  names  in 
Egyptian  literature  is  that  of  Amenhotep, 
the  son  of  Hapi,  who  lived  in  the  reign 
of  Amenhotep  III  (1411-1375).  It  is  as 
author  that  he  is  chiefly  famous  and  in 
later  timies  he  was  worshipped  as  a god. 
It  was  for  proverbs  or  wisdom  literature 
that  he  was  famed  and  in  an  inscription 
on  his  tomb  at  Thebes,  it  is  said,  “his  name 
shall  abide  forever,  his  sayings  shall  not 
perish”.  It  is  the  irony  of  fate  that  only 
nine  proverbs  survive  under  his  name,  and 
these  are  thought  to  be  apocryphal.  Amen- 
hotep was  a royal  scribe,  minister  of  pub- 
lic works,  and  chief  of  the  prophets  of 
Horus.  The  latter  office  possibly,  as  we 
[42] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

have  seen,  implied  librarianship  and  his 
office  as  chief  king’s  scribe  ‘skilful  in  the 
divine  words”  probably  implied  the  same. 
He  records  that  he  was  “introduced  into 
the  divine  book,  beheld  the  excellent 
things  of  Thoth,  was  equipped  with  all 
their  secrets,  and  opened  all  the  sacred 
books” — the  same  word  being  used  that 
was  used  when  King  Neferhotep  went  to 
the  library  and  opened  the  rolls  with  the 
librarians.  This,  nevertheless,  probably  re- 
fers to  reading  rather  than  to  keeping  the 
books,  and  our  claim  on  this  famous  au- 
thor as  librarian  rests  on  his  offices  as 
chief  architect  and  chief  prophet — which 
evidence  is  not  quite  up  to  the  standard 
which  we  have  been  setting  for  ourselves, 
although  its  group  of  corroborations  is 
too  strong  to  let  the  name  be  passed. 

Something  the  same  thing  may  be  said 
of  the  vizier  Ramose  in  the  following 
reign  of  Ikhnaton  or  Amenhotep  IV,  al- 
though the  evidence  is  much  stronger 
l43l 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

since  he  is  “master  of  all  wardrobes”, 
“master  of  secret  things  of  the  palace”, 
“attached  to  Nekhen,  prophet  of  Maat”, 
and  chief  justice.  The  combination,  espe- 
cially the  “secret  things  of  the  palace” 
forms  a pretty  explicit  reference  to  the 
archives,  and  if  so  we  have  the  responsi- 
ble head  of  the  famous  Tel-el-Amarna 
archival  library,  from  which  a couple  of 
hundreds  of  letters  from  Syria,  Palestine, 
Babylonia,  and  the  kings  of  the  Mitan- 
nians  and  the  Hittites  still  survive.  If  the 
vizier  was  in  charge,  he  like  some  modern 
directors,  probably  gave  no  direct  atten- 
tion but  doubtless  had  special  scribes  for 
the  keeping  of  the  documents. 

This  brings  things  down  to  the  time 
when  Moses  lived,  if  he  did  live,  whether 
this  was  in  the  time  of  the  Amenhoteps, 
as  some  still  say,  or  in  the  reigns  from 
Ramses  II  to  Seti  II,  as  most  aver,  for 
we  have  no  references  between.  Sup- 
posing this  latter  date  to  be  the  case,  the 
I 44  I 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

next  reference  would  be  not  far  from 
the  time  when  Moses,  like  many  other 
foreigners,  was  being  brought  up  with  the 
king’s  sons  in  the  palace  school  and  in  the 
palace  library,  while  Aaron  by  the  same 
token,  if  he  was,  and  if  he  was  what  he 
was  said  to  have  been,  was  cultivating  the 
eloquence  which  his  brother  lacked,  in  the 
schools  for  sacred  scribes  in  the  libraries 
of  the  temple  where  eloquence  as  well  as 
writing  was  taught. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Ramses 
II,  the  Great  (1292),  the  king  went  to 
Thebes  to  dedicate  a statute  to  his  father. 
Passing  through  Abydos  he  was  shocked 
at  the  unfinished  and  ruinous  state  of  the 
temple  of  Seti  I,  and  so  commanded  the 
‘‘wearer  of  the  royal  seal”  to  “call  the 
court — the  king’s  grandees,  all  the  com- 
manders of  the  army,  all  the  chiefs  of 
works,  and  the  keepers  of  the  house  of 
rolls  (books)”.  They  were  brought  be- 
fore his  Majesty  and  delivered  themselves 
[45] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

of  a panegyric.  When  this  formality, 
which  included  bowing  their  noses  in 
the  dust,  their  knees  upon  the  earth,  smell- 
ing the  earth,  had  been  completed,  the 
king  told  them  that  he  had  called  them 
on  account  of  a plan  that  he  had  to  repair 
the  temple.  To  this  the  court  responded 
with  another  panegyric,  “and  after  these 
utterances’’  his  Majesty  commissioned  the 
chiefs  of  work  to  carry  out  his  plans. 
Here  again  we  have  the  librarians  among 
the  members  of  the  court  summoned  to 
advise  the  king  about  temple  building. 

In  the  reign  of  King  Siptah  (1215- 
1209)  near  the  end  of  the  same  century, 
Neferhor,  the  son  of  Neferhor,  was  the 
“priest  of  the  moon  god,  Thoth”,  and 
“scribe  of  the  archives  of  Pharoah”.  He 
achieved  the  coveted  honor,  which  he  re- 
cords in  certain  scribblings  in  Nubia,  of 
an  embassy  to  the  officials  of  Nubia  carry- 
ing rewards  for  the  officials  and  conduct- 
ing “the  king’s  son  of  Kush,  Seti”  on  the 
[46] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

first  expedition.  In  the  third  year  of  the 
same  reign,  Piyay,  king’s  scribe  of  the 
archives  of  Pharoah,  went  to  Nubia  to 
receive  the  tribute.  This  same  Seti,  who 
was  conducted  to  Kush  by  Neferhor,  now 
appears  as  viceroy  of  Kush,  and  describes 
himself  as  “king’s  scribe  of  the  records  of 
Pharoah”,  the  interesting  thing  about  the 
matter  being  that  this  Seti  was  afterwards 
King  Seti  II. 

These  three  “scribes  of  Pharoah’s  re- 
cords” may  have  had  less  to  do  with  the 
keeping,  or  library  side  of  archival  work, 
than  with  the  book  keeping  or  recording 
side,  but  there  is  a certain  presumption 
that  these  grandees  were  more  likely  to 
have  been  at  least  nominal  directors  of 
the  archives,  than  to  have  had  much  to  do 
with  the  clerical  side,  although,  doubt- 
less, the  office  had  much  to  do  with  the 
preparing  of  records  of  tribute  and  the 
like  as  well  as  keeping  the  documentary 
records. 


[47] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


It  was  about  this  very  time,  too,  possi- 
bly in  the  reign  of  this  Seti  II,  that  the 
scribe  Anna  or  Enna  lived,  a “master  of 
the  rolls”,  who  had  compiled  or  had  copied 
the  “Tale  of  two  brothers”,  and  to  whom 
it  is  said  we  owe  a very  large  part  of  what 
has  been  preserved  of  old  Egyptian  litera- 
ture. This  “master  of  the  books”  at  least 
had  in  his  collection  much  that  was  not 
archival. 

By  the  time  of  Ramses  III  (1198- 
1167)  a somewhat  rapid  degeneration 
in  public  life  in  Egypt  had  set  in. 
Power  was  maintained  by  the  use  of  a 
great  number  of  foreign  mercenaries  and 
foreign  officials  in  the  king  s service.  The 
reign  was  marked  by  tumultuous  strikes 
on  the  part  of  working  men  amounting 
almost  to  a revolution,  and  very  near  the 
end  came  the  famous  conspiracy  known 
as  the  Harem  conspiracy.  Queen  Tiy  was 
at  the  head  of  this  conspiracy  and  her  son, 
the  royal  chamberlain  and  the  royal  butler, 
[48] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

ringleaders  with  her.  The  idea  was  to 
make  way  with  the  King,  but  the  plot 
miscarried,  the  conspirators  were  taken, 
trial  ordered,  and  the  court  appointed  by 
the  King  who,  however,  died  before  the 
trial.  One  of  the  charges  was  that  the 
conspirators  had  unlawfully  secured  a 
“magic  roll”  of  Ramses  III  ...  his 
lord.  Two  of  the  judges  appointed  to 
try  the  thirty  or  forty  principals  and  ac- 
cessories were  librarians;  Mai,  scribe  of 
the  archives  and  Peremhab,  likewise  scribe 
of  the  archives,  or  according  to  the  trans- 
lation of  Deveria  plainly  “librarians”. 
Some  of  the  judges  presided  at  one  trial 
and  others  at  another,  and  the  official  re- 
cords of  four  prosecutions  are  preserved. 
Twenty-two  were  condemned  at  the  first, 
six  at  the  second,  four  at  the  third.  All 
of  those  who  were  condemned,  were  con- 
demned to  death  and  in  the  case  of  the 
second  prosecution  these  included  “the 
great  criminal  Messui  formerly  scribe  of 
[491 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


the  house  of  sacred  writings,  and  the 
great  criminal  Shedmeszer,  formerly 
scribe  of  the  house  of  sacred  writings.” 
They  were  allowed  to  commit  suicide  and 
the  two  librarians  and  their  companions 
did  so  on  the  spot  in  court.  Among  those 
condemned  on  the  third  prosecution  was 
the  Queen’s  son  tried  under  an  alias  to 
spare  the  royal  feelings.  Among  the  com- 
panions of  the  two  librarians  condemned 
on  the  second  prosecution  was  the  general 
Peyes,  and  among  those  of  the  first  prose- 
cution six  women,  one  of  whom  was  pre- 
sumably the  sister  of  Binenwiese,  the  cap- 
tain of  archers  in  Nubia,  who  was  in  the 
Harem  and  who  drew  her  brother  into 
the  plot — although  she  may  have  been  con- 
demned in  some  other  trial  whose  records 
are  not  preserved.  Four  out  of  the  four- 
teen judges  were  foreigners,  and  two,  as 
has  been  said,  librarians — two  librarians 
thus  among  the  judges  and  two  among  the 
criminals. 


[50] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

There  is  a supplementary  fragment  in 
the  Papyrus  Rollin  which  includes  the 
charges,  in  two  cases,  of  the  practice  of 
magic  and  it  is  hard  not  to  associate  these 
with  the  two  scribes  connected  with  the 
house  of  sacred  writings,  especially  as 
it  is  said  that  they  committed  suicide  like 
the  others,  and  because  they  were  both 
scribes  and  the  latter  obviously  a librarian. 
One  of  those  who  were  condemned  for 
magic,  made  magic  rolls  and  gave  them 
into  the  hands  of  Pebekkamen,  the  cham- 
berlain, one  of  the  arch  conspirators.  The 
other,  however,  is  more  interesting,  for  it 
appears  that  when  Penhuibin,  overseer  of 
herds,  applied  to  him  to  “give  to  me  a 
roll,  for  enduing  me  with  strength  and 
might’’  he  gave  to  him,  it  is  said,  “a  magic 
roll  of  Usemare-Meriamon  (Ramses  III) 
(now  deceased)  his  lord,  and  he  began  to 
employ  the  magic  powers  of  a god  upon 
people”.  Especially  he  bewitched  the 
guards  so  that  messages  could  be  sent  in 
[5i] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

and  out  without  their  notice.  Since  it  was 
one  of  the  King’s  books  which  was  given 
or  loaned  by  the  criminal,  it  seems  obvious 
that  the  latter  was  a king’s  librarian. 

As  librarians  we  would  fain  wish  that 
the  story  stopped  here  but  it  does  not. 
Sometime  during  the  trial  the  chief  of 
police  Oneny  and  the  military  officer  Tey- 
nakhte,  in  charge  of  the  prisoners,  took 
two  of  the  women  prisoners  and  the  gen- 
eral Peyes,  who  was  tried  with  the  two 
librarians  in  the  second  prosecution,  to  the 
home  of  the  judges,  Pebes  and  Mai. 
There,  in  a literal  translation  of  the  word 
used,  they  “made  a beer  hall”  or  had  a 
beer  bout.  Mai  was,  it  will  be  remember- 
ed, “Scribe  of  the  archives”.  They  were 
tried  for  this  and  officers  and  judges  were 
all  condemned  to  have  their  noses  and 
ears  cut  off  because  of  their  disobedience 
to  their  instructions,  or  as  it  is  expressed, 
“because  of  their  forsaking  the  good  tes- 
timony delivered  to  them”.  Pebes,  having 
[52] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

been  left  alone,  preferred  suicide,  but  the 
librarian  was  not  such  good  stuff. 

Ramses  IV  (i  167-1171)  furnishes  an- 
other case  of  the  librarian  members  of 
the  court.  He  himself,  in  his  second  year, 
having  “entered  into  the  annals  and  ex- 
amined the  records  of  the  house  of  sacred 
writings”  commanded  the  king’s  compa- 
nions including  again  “the  scribes  and 
wise  men  of  the  house  of  sacred  writings” 
to  prepare  to  make  a certain  monument. 
The  following  year  on  the  27th  day  of 
the  tenth  month  his  majesty  himself,  after 
having  looked  over  the  ground  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Hammamat  quarries, 
first  ordered  Ramses-eshehab,  the  “Scribe 
of  the  house  of  sacred  writings”  to  make 
a sort  of  preliminary  survey  and  then  or- 
ganized an  expedition  of  nearly  ten  thous- 
and persons  to  bring  blocks  from  these 
quarries. 

In  the  reign  of  Ramses  IX  (1142- 
1123)  the  High  Priest  Amenhotep,  chief 
[ 53] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

chief  architect,  appears  in  an  inscription 
on  the  temple  of  Karnak  coming  before 
the  King  to  receive  laudatory  addresses 
and  more  tangible  rewards  of  gold,  sweet 
beer,  and  sweet  oil  of  gum,  with  royal 
grants  from  the  harvests.  The  King  it  is 
said  first  “spake  to  cause  the  Pharoah’s 
“Scribe  of  rolls  to  come  forth”,  but  it  is 
not  quite  clear  whether  this  scribe  was 
Amenhotep.  Let  us  hope  that  it  was  a 
librarian  who  received  the  six  stands 
filled  with  sacks  of  gold,  etc.,  which 
Amenhotep  had  at  this  time. 

Under  the  same  Ramses  IX,  in  the  fa- 
mous trial  of  the  royal  tomb  robbers, 
there  is  another  allusion  to  the  vizier’s 
archives,  and  of  the  deposit  in  it  of  a 
roll  and  a copy  of  the  records  of  matters 
which  had  been  laid  before  the  vizier. 
This  brings  the  story  down  to  about  the 
middle  of  the  12th  century  B.  C.,  a hun- 
dred years,  more  or  less,  before  the  birth 
of  King  David  and  some  five  hundred 
154] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

years  before  Assurbanipal  conquered 
Egypt  or  finished  with  his  library. 

During  the  two  thousand  years  or  so 
covered  we  have  thus  some  twenty-one 
librarians  with  names,  dates  and  incidents 
for  our  biographical  dictionary  of  Egyp- 
tian librarians,  two  more  anonymous  li- 
brarians who  made  their  mark  and  several 
other  references  to  plural  librarians — a 
scant  survival  of  the  many  thousands  who 
followed  the  profession  in  Egypt  in  this 
time  but  far  indeed  from  nothing.  Some 
of  these  men,  it  appears,  were  famous  in 
letters  and  most  of  them  attained  high 
distinction  in  the  state — several  were 
viziers  and  one  became  a king.  The  of- 
fice itself  appears  to  have  been  so  highly 
esteemed,  you  remember,  that  the  temple 
and  palace  librarians  were  ex-officio  mem- 
bers of  the  privy  council.  There  are  not 
many  viziers  among  the  librarians  of  our 
day  nor  many  king  makers  like  Senmut, 
yet  some  of  us  can  remember  when  Cardi- 
1 55  1 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


nal  Rampolla  as  Secretary  of  State  exer- 
cised some  such  librarianship  over  the 
Vatican  library  and  archives  as  Ramose 
may  have  exercised  over  the  Amarna  ar- 
chives, and  it  is  a matter  of  no  little  satis- 
faction to  librarians  that  Harnack  has 
found  the  post  of  library  director  reward- 
ing. Truth  to  tell,  it  may  be  doubted  if 
these  United  States  of  America  would  not 
gain  something  if  they  imitated  this  4500 
year  old  Egyptian  example  (which  seems 
to  have  worked  well  for  1500  years  at 
least)  and  made  the  chief  librarian  of 
Congress  member  of  the  cabinet  and  ex- 
officio  Secretary  of  Education!  Indeed, 
why  not  now  and  then  a library  Presi- 
dent? When  they  classify  the  Presidency 
under  the  civil  service,  and  make  all  candi- 
dates for  the  office  take  the  qualifying 
examinations  under  the  merit  system,  per- 
haps— who  knows? 


[56] 


II 


SUPPLEMENTARY  PAPER 

There  are  some  things  left  out  of  the 
first  paper,  for  lack  of  time,  which  are 
worth  adding  to  emphasize  either  the 
wealth  of  material  or  its  significance. 
These  relate  to  what  may  be  called  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  library  gods,  Seshait 
as  Hathor,  the  assistant  library  gods,  the 
prophet  as  ex-officio  librarian,  the  books 
of  Thoth,  and  the  library  of  secret  writ- 
ings. 

INTERPRETING  THE  LIBRARY  GODS 

To  understand  the  meaning  of  Thoth 
and  Seshait  and  all  the  many  other  gods, 
like  Hathor,  Neith,  Nephthys,  Tefnut, 
etc.,  with  whom  they  from  time  to  time 
identify  themselves,  several  things  need 
to  be  understood. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  Egyptian 
1 57] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

habit  of  identifying  one  god  with  another 
or  with  a human  being,  impersonating 
one  by  the  other.  In  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  the  departed  soul  is  himself  identi- 
fied with  Osiris  and  has  become  an  Osiris, 
and  as  he  recites  one  or  another  of  the 
chapters  of  the  book  buried  with  him 
for  this  purpose,  he  impersonates  one  god 
or  another  according  to  the  aspect  of 
thought  with  which  he  is  dealing  at  the 
time.  “I  am  Thoth,”  he  says,  “I  am 
Shu,”  “I  am  the  crocodile  god,”  “I  am 
the  heron,  the  soul  of  Ra,”  “I  am  the 
jackal  of  jackals,”  and  so  on.  Sometimes 
the  impersonation  changes  and,  like  one 
of  these  performers  who  impersonates  a 
dozen  characters  in  a single  act,  the 
speaker  becomes  a half  dozen  persons  or 
professions  in  a single  chapter:  “I  am 
Thoth,”  “I  am  Tattu  the  son  of  Tattu,” 
“I  am  the  priest  in  Tattu,”  “I  am  the 
prophet  in  Abydos,”  “I  am  the  sem 
priest,”  “I  am  the  arch  craftsman.” 

[58] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

When,  therefore,  Seshait,  Hathor,  and 
Nephthys,  are  found  having-  a like  aspect, 
it  is  said  that  Seshait  is  one  of  the  forms 
of  Hathor  or  vice  versa,  although  it 
might  often  be  better  to  say  when  Hathor 
is  found  identifying  herself  with  Seshait 
that  Hathor,  acting  in  this  capacity,  is 
Seshait. 

One  of  the  most  familiar  phenomena 
of  Egyptian  inscriptions  is  that  of  the 
king  as  god.  He  describes  himself  and 
is  described  as  “god”  or  “that  god”; 
sometimes  as  Amon,  sometimes  as  Ra 
or  whoever  it  may  be.  When  acting  in 
certain  capacities  or  performing  certain 
rites  he  “is”  Thoth  or  the  son  of  Ra,  etc. 

In  the  second  place,  it  needs  to  be  re- 
membered that  the  names  of  the  gods  as 
used  by  the  Egyptions  were  a sort  of 
continuous  allegory  or  sustained  simile. 
The  botton  meaning  is  commonly  astro- 
nomical and  the  character  and  actions  of 
the  god  represent  astronomical  objects  or 
[ 59] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

events.  The  mythologies  of  all  nations 
have  at  their  base  a sort  of  science  of  na- 
ture especially  of  astronomical  objects. 
Names  are  given  to  the  objects  and  these 
names  treated  as  persons.  The  actions 
of  these  persons  describe  first  the  nature 
and  acts  of  the  objects — which  is  a sort 
of  science  and  then  these  serve  to  express 
the  thinking  in  any  analogous  field  of 
philosophy  or  theology.  The  actions  of 
natural  objects  became  thus  a sort  of 
universal  analogy  and  form  a true,  if 
figurative,  language.  Thus  if  the  sun 
is  Ra  and  the  moon  is  Thoth  the  words 
express  very  simple  facts  in  plain  enough 
language.  When  however  it  is  said  that 
the  Lion-god  issues  from  the  Bow  (Bk. 
of  Dead,  Renouf.,  p.  132,  p.  276)  it  may 
be  translated  as  Ra  (Tefnut-Seshait?) 
issuing  from  Thoth  or  as  the  Sun  re- 
flected from  the  Moon,  itself  a nice  sci- 
entific fact,  but  in  reality  the  phrase  con- 
tains also  what  has  been  called  (by  Arago, 
[60] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

Renouf.  Essays  2 : 290)  “the  very  deli- 
cate observation,”  “that  a line  drawn 
from  the  center  of  the  sun,  bisects  at 
right  angles  the  line  which  joins  the  two 
horns  of  the  crescent” — an  arrow  shot 
from  the  bow  would  be,  or  would  reach, 
the  sun.  These  various  observations  of 
nature  become  however  so  many  terms 
for  expressing  social,  ethical  or  religious 
ideas.  Thoth  is  the  moon  in  nature, 
writing  (or  expression)  in  human  af- 
fairs, and  creator  and  regeneator  in  the 
religious  world  because  expression  is 
creation. 

One  of  the  commonest  themes  in  my- 
thology is  the  conflict  between  light  and 
darkness:  Horus  and  Set,  in  Egyptian. 
These  two  are  day  and  night  in  nature, 
intelligence  and  ignorance  in  the  realm 
of  mind,  good  and  evil  in  morals,  and 
life  and  death  in  religion.  When  Thoth 
is  brought  into  this  circle  of  ideas,  at 
the  point  of  the  dualism  of  intelligence 
[61] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

and  ignorance  or  consciousness  and  the 
lack  of  consciousness,  Horus  is  the  active 
human  mind  or  intelligence,  Set  is  the 
ignorance  which  Horus  (who  in  his  as- 
tronomical aspect  is  the  light  of  the  sun) 
tries  to  destroy,  and  it  is  Thoth,  so  this 
language  says,  who  gives  Horus  (light) 
the  victory  over  Set  (darkness).  Thoth 
destroys  Set  and  restores  to  Horus  his 
lost  or  wounded  eye.  Astronomically 
this  means  that  the  moon  by  reflected  light 
destroys  the  darkness.  On  the  book  side 
it  perhaps  implies  that  writing  is  not  the 
direct  but  the  reflected  light  of  the  mind. 
The  healing  of  the  eye  of  Horus  may 
mean,  and  probably  does  mean,  the  restor- 
ation or  refreshing  of  memory  by  the 
recorded  words,  as  it  certainly  means  in 
its  application  to  the  future  life,  the  res- 
toration of  consciousness.  Death  was 
symbolized  by  the  going  down  of  the  sun 
and  the  coming  on  of  darkness  or  loss  of 
consciousness.  The  consciousness  was  re- 
[62] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


stored  by  Thoth  through  the  impartation 
of  truth  or  knowledge  which  quickened 
the  new  life. 

The  observation  that  all  expression,  and 
especially  written  expression,  is  a reflected 
light  of  intelligence,  must  be  counted  also 
“a  very  nice  observation”.  The  fact  that 
books  are  the  cure  for  ignorance  (Thoth 
slays  Set)  is  simple  enough,  also  that  the 
Moon  gives  light  by  night,  but  why  it  is 
that  the  God  of  words  should  be  the  one 
to  give  victory  over  death  is  more  recon- 
dite. It  is  easy  to  see  the  figurative  rela- 
tion, too,  between  the  continued  existence 
of  written  words  and  immortality — it  is 
the  difference  between  the  ephemeral 
spoken  word  and  the  permanent  record. 
But  Thoth  is  connected  with  resurrection 
even  more  than  with  immortality.  He 
causes  the  sun,  set  in  the  blackness  of 
night,  to  rise  again,  the  soul  unconscious 
in  death  to  become  conscious  again.  He 
does  this  by  breathing  in  the  spirit  of 
[63] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

truth  by  giving  the  water  and  bread 
life,  which  is  knowledge  or  truth.  He 
sanctifies  by  words  and  prepares  for  the 
last  judgment  when  a man’s  mind  and 
truth  are  weighed  against  one  another 
in  the  balances.  Just  what  the  Egyptian 
theologians  were  driving  at  in  all  this 
has  not  yet  been  unravelled,  but  it  was  on 
one  side  close  to  the  idea  that  conscious 
life  is  “thinking”  and  close  to  the  idea  of 
the  Christian  idea  of  the  place  of  the 
Word  and  the  Spirit  of  Truth  in  the 
doctrines  of  sanctification,  regeneration 
and  eternal  life. 

But,  however,  it  may  be  about  the  more 
hidden  meanings,  one  meaning  of  Thoth 
stands  out  clearly.  As  was  said  in  the 
first  paper,  Thoth  was  scribe  of  the  gods 
“the  writing  reed  (or  pen)  of  the  invio- 
late god”,  who  “utters  his  words”.  He 
“illuminateth  thy  path  with  his  rays”.  He 
has  “dispelled  darkness”.  He  it  is  who 
admits  the  priest  king  to  the  inmost  shrine 
[64] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

where  the  god  dwells  and  takes  down  the 
written  oracle.  His  thirty-six  or  forty- 
two  books  are  the  fundamental  revelation 
of  all  the  gods.  He  is,  in  short,  the  re- 
vealer,  the  interpreter  of  the  gods  to  men. 

SESHAIT  AND  HATHOR 

The  axis  of  the  various  chambers 
of  the  temple  of  Hathor  at  Denderah  is 
the  chambers  of  the  plan  of  Mariette. 
This,  he  says,  by  position,  as  well  as  by 
meaning,  may  be  considered  the  innermost 
shrine  of  the  temple,  and  it  is  in  fact  a 
resume  of  the  temple  itself.  In  it  the 
goddess  “appears  under  all  her  chief 
forms”.  It  may  or  may  not  have  con- 
tained the  portable  shrine  of  the  goddess, 
but  the  inmost  shrine  of  the  temple  usu- 
ally had  such  a shrine  and  one  may  sup- 
pose from  Mariette’s  plate  64,  from  this 
room,  which  shows  the  king  opening  the 
door  of  such  a shrine,  in  which  Hathor 
is  with  the  inscription  “the  goddess  mani- 
[65] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

fests  herself  to  me  in  her  secret  shrine”, 
that  this  was  in  fact  the  case. 

However  that  may  be,  in  this  holy  of 
holies,  with  this  among  the  pictures  on 
the  wall,  Thoth  figures  largely  and  Hathor 
herself  appears  “assimilated  to  Seshait  the 
goddess  of  writing”.  In  one  of  the  pic- 
tures the  king  describes  himself  as  son  of 
Thoth  and  while  making  an  offering  to 
Hathor  of  the  conventional  figure  of 
Truth,  calls  Hathor  Truth  herself  and 
makes  her  identical  thus  with  the  goddess 
Maat  or  Truth.  The  inscription  reads 
“never  does  Truth  separate  herself  from 
this  goddess  night  or  day:  Truth  is  the 
hidden  form  of  Hathor”.  In  correspond- 
ing picture  “the  king  presents  himself  be- 
fore Hathor  accompanied  by  the  goddess 
Truth  herself.  Hathor  is  in  this  picture 
assimilated  to  Seshait  the  goddess  of 
writing.  The  king  has  become  initiated 
into  the  divine  science,  has  acquired  the 
knowledge  of  truth,  and  makes  an  offer- 
[66] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

ing  of  truth  to  the  goddess,  while  it  is  the 
goddess  Truth  herself  who  leads  him”.  In 
another  picture,  the  king  is  again  opening 
the  seal  of  the  door  which  is  elsewhere 
described  as  the  office  of  Thoth.  Atten- 
tion has  already  been  called  to  Hathor  as 
carrying  the  books  of  Thoth  to  Ra  and 
as  identical  with  Seshait  in  this  capacity. 
In  another  room  of  this  same  temple  (E. ) 
Hathor  is  assimilated  with  Isis  but  with 
Isis  in  a particular  role  as  the  inventor  of 
writing.  As  is  well  known  Hathor,  the 
mother  goddess,  is  one  of  the  favorite 
figures  among  the  Egyptian  gods.  Her 
worship  is  very  ancient,  and  she  is  most 
thoroughly  identified  with  Isis.  She,  how- 
ever, when  looked  upon  as  the  mother  of 
the  sciences  perhaps  is  obviously  assimi- 
lated with  the  goddess  of  writing,  but 
the  interesting  and  significant  matter  is 
that  this  assimilation  should  be  indicated 
as  the  very  central  meaning  of  her  nature 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  temple. 

[67] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

An  interesting  corollary  to  the  matter 
is  what  must  be  counted  for  the  present 
pure  hypothesis.  It  arises  from  the  fact 
that  a golden  image  of  Hathor  is  describ- 
ed in  room  z as  being  in  a double  chest — 
a chest  within  a chest  such  as  is  common 
in  the  case  of  coffins.  Since  it  is  not  ex- 
cluded that  there  may  have  been  statues 
(and  in  later  times  it  would  be  likely)  and 
since  papyri  have  been  found  in  the  space 
between  the  double  coffins,  it  is  possible 
that  the  inner  case  contained  a statue  and 
that  writings  were  in  the  between  space. 
This  in  turn  would  account  for  the  blind 
expression  regarding  the  Hebrew  ark 
where  the  tables  were  within  but  other  ob- 
jects or  books  were  laid  up  beside  the  ark. 

THE  ASSISTANTS  OF  THOTH 
The  seven  divine  masters  or  sages  who 
assist  Thoth  are,  according  to  Renouf,  the 
inventors  and  patrons  of  all  the  arts  and 
sciences.  They  are  the  offspring  of  the 
[68] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

cow,  Mehurit,  and  were  hawk  formed  or 
human  headed  hawks.  They  have  been 
identified  with  the  seven  stars  of  the  Great 
Bear  (Thoth  being  here  the  north  star) 
and  with  the  seven  cows  of  the  Book  of 
the  Dead  (Chap.  148)  who  “give  bread 
and  drink  to  the  glorified  soul” — this 
bread  and  drink  being  knowledge  They 
have  been  identified  also  with  the  seven 
Rishis  of  the  Sanskrit  literature.  Their 
characterization  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
is  quite  esoteric  and  on  the  face  of  it  not 
particularly  winsome,  but  the  somewhat 
bloodthirsty  language  of  these  assistant  li- 
brarian gods  will  undoubtedly  sometime 
find  its  interpretation  in  terms  of  books 
and  knowledge. 

The  account  is  as  follows:  “Oh  ye 
Seven  Divine  Masters  who  are  the  arms 
of  the  Balance  on  the  Night  wherein 
the  Eye  is  fixed;  ye  who  strike  off  the 
heads  and  cleave  the  necks,  who  seize  the 
hearts  and  drag  forth  the  whole  hearts, 
[69] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


and  accomplish  the  slaughter  in  the  Tank 
of  Flame  . . . live  in  me  and  let  me 

live  in  you.  Convey  to  me  the  Symbol  of 
Life  and  the  Sceptre. 

PROPHETS  AND  MASTERS  OF  SECRET 
THINGS 

A certain  interesting  light  on  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  the  prophets  were  always 
by  virtue  of  their  office  sacred  librarians, 
and  not  without  its  relation  to  the  title 
“masters  of  secret  things”,  is  found  in  the 
inscriptions  on  some  of  the  crypts  of  the 
temple  at  Denderah,  where  it  is  said, 
speaking  of  the  secret  things,  “the  place 
is  secret  and  no  one  knows  where  it  is. 
If  they  shall  search  for  its  entrance  no 
one  will  find  it,  except  the  prophets  of  the 
goddess”.  These  crypts  contained  appa- 
rently a library,  for  the  crypt  number  four 
contains  a catalogue  of  five  books  which 
are  thought  to  have  been  contained  in  the 
temple  library.  It  must  be  said,  however, 
[70] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


that  Mariette  considers  that  the  library  at 
Denderah,  which  contained  these  five 
works,  may  have  been  a sort  of  portable 
cabinet  placed  in  what  is  the  least  mysteri- 
ous of  all  the  rooms. 

In  Chapter  XIV  of  the  Book  of  the 
Dead,  Thoth  is  addressed  as  the  god  “who 
presideth  over  all  the  secret  things”.  This 
may  be  put  in  connection  with  the  inscrip- 
tion given  in  Breasted,  where  the  real 
scribes  of  the  hieroglyphs  are  the  “masters 
of  all  secrets”.  It  would  seem  to  follow 
from  these  quotations  at  least  that  the 
masters  of  secret  things  were  always 
prophets  and  that  they  always  had  under 
their  charge  the  secret  writings  as  well 
as  other  things.  It  does  not  follow  so 
clearly  that  all  prophets  had  access  to  or 
charge  of  the  secret  writings. 

THE  BOOKS  OF  THOTH 

It  is  not  always  clear  whether  the  books 
of  Thoth  are  the  books  which  are  written 
[7i] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

by  him  or  the  books  over  which  he  has 
charge.  He,  indeed,  does  not  always  seem 
to  have  charge  even  of  his  own  writings 
for  it  speaks  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  of 
“she  who  directs  the  morning  light  in  her 
time  and  observes  the  mid-day  heat,  the 
lady  of  the  books  written  by  Thoth  him- 
self”. Remembering,  however,  that  among 
the  gods  all  written  matters,  whether  they 
are  uttered  by  Amon  or  Ptah  or  what- 
ever god,  are  supposed  to  be  written  down 
by  Thoth,  and  remembering  farther  that 
the  king,  when  he  is  represented  as  writ- 
ing, identifies  himself  with  Thoth,  it  is 
readily  seen  how  all  sacred  books  whether 
of  Thoth’s  authorship  or  not  may  be  called 
the  books  of  Thoth.  The  Book  of  the 
Dead  which  contains  books  of  Thoth  is 
perhaps  to  be  regarded  as  a collection  of 
nearly  200  books  of  Thoth.  What  the 
relation  of  this  is  to  the  books  of  the  Nile 
god  and  the  known  collections  of  the 
books  of  Thoth  would  be  an  interesting 
[72] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

matter  for  special  study.  It  is  certain  that 
there  was  no  fixed  collection  of  books 
meant  by  this  for  the  three  extant  cata- 
logues of  such  collection,  that  given  in 
the  Stromata  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
that  on  the  walls  of  the  little  Library  of 
Edfu,  and  the  five  titles  from  the  Library 
of  Denderah  found  in  inscriptions  there, 
do  not  agree.  It  seems,  therefore,  rather 
clear  that,  in  general,  by  books  of  Thoth 
is  meant  simply  the  temple  library  or  per- 
haps the  library  of  sacred  writings  in  the 
temple — the  “collection  of  books  put  un- 
der the  guardianship  of  Thoth’’. 

THE  SHRINE-LIBRARY 

There  is  an  interesting  line  of  evidence 
which  seems  to  point  to  the  most  holy 
object  of  the  holy  of  holies  of  the  Egyp- 
tian temples,  the  focus  of  Egyptian  wor- 
ship, as  being  in  the  earliest  period  simply 
a chest  of  writings.  It  is  not  questioned 
that  the  portable  shrine,  kept  in  the  holy 
[73l 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

of  holies,  was  a box  or  chest  or  cabinet. 
This  portable  shrine  was  often,  and  in 
later  times  generally,  in  a miniature  boat, 
which,  however,  was  not  placed  in  the 
water  but  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
priests  in  procession.  This  boat  was  meta- 
phorical of  the  barque  of  Ra  and  the 
shrine  has  often  been  supposed  to  contain 
a secret  statue  of  the  god — this  being  a 
reasonable  guess  from  the  undoubted  fact 
that  the  god  was  supposed  to  reside  in 
this  shrine,  and  the  probability  that  in  later 
times  at  least  it  did  contain  such  a statue. 

It  is  agreed,  however,  that  this  is  only 
guess  as  to  earlier  times  since  the  Egyp- 
tians were  so  painstakingly  secret  about 
the  matter  that  no  direct  hint,  it  is  said, 
of  the  contents  was  ever  given  among  the 
myriads  of  inscriptions  on  the  walls  as  to 
what  actually  was  within  this  inmost 
shrine.  In  view,  however,  of  what  has 
been  said  about  the  part  that  Thoth  played 
in  the  philosophy  of  life  and  death  and 
[74] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

revelation,  it  is  not  so  certain  that  the 
inscriptions  do  not,  in  the  first  place,  show 
that  the  Naos  did  not  contain  the  statue 
at  times,  and  in  the  second  place,  suggest 
that  it  did  contain  secret  writings  and  per- 
haps writings  only  at  some  times. 

To  begin  with,  it  sometimes  appears 
that  when  a god  was  consulted  in  the  holy 
of  holies  his  statue  was  brought  in  and 
placed  in  a certain  niche  in  the  wall.  This 
would  not  prove  that  there  was  not  also  a 
secret  statue  in  the  chest  in  the  middle  of 
the  room  if  there  was  evidence  for  the  lat- 
ter, but  in  the  absence  of  such  evidence  it 
makes  the  hypothesis  of  a statue  within 
rather  pointless. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  extra- 
ordinary series  of  related  representations 
which  in  their  allegorical  language  seem 
to  point  to  writings  as  the  contents  of  the 
shrine,  and  putting  these  together  with  the 
nature  of  the  case  and  its  circumstances 
and  with  hints  from  the  comparative  his- 
175] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


tory  of  oracles,  there  seems  strong,  if  not 
conclusive,  evidence  for  the  fact. 

Considering  first  the  nature  of  the  case, 
it  is  evident  and  well  understood  that  the 
meaning  of  the  inmost  or  hindmost  part 
of  the  temple,  the  innermost  sanctuary,  or 
holy  of  holies,  not  in  Egypt  only  but 
among  Babylonians,  Hittites,  Jews,  and 
Greeks,  is  that  it  is  the  place  where  the 
god  meets  man.  In  Egpyt  it  is  generally 
the  King  alone  who  has  access  and  the 
recent  Hittite  excavations  show  the  same 
thing,  in  that  there  is  a figure  of  the  god 
welcoming  the  priest-king  with  open 
arms.  It  is  the  place  to  which  man  re- 
sorts in  order  to  meet  his  god  and  to 
inquire  of  him.  It  is,  in  short,  the  oracle. 
This  in  Egyptian  religion  at  least  is  so 
often  evidenced  on  monuments  as  to  be  a 
truism. 

The  next  step  of  circumstance  is  the 
fact  that  these  oracles  were  commonly, 
if  not  always,  written.  Sometimes  they 
1?6] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

were  written  by  the  priest  or  king  and 
presented  to  the  statue  of  the  god,  which 
had  been  brought  in  and  put  in  the  niche 
in  the  wall,  and  the  god  would  make  sign 
of  yes  or  no.  Sometimes  the  oracles  were 
oral,  but  were  in  fact  written  down  by 
the  inquirer,  and,  in  short,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that,  in  many  of  these  in- 
terviews, the  king  or  priest  is  repre- 
sented as  identifying  himself  with  the 
god,  becoming  assimilated  to  the  god  and 
speaking  in  the  first  person : “I  am  Ra”. 
What  he  writes,  therefore,  the  god  writes. 
(A  good  example  of  this  is  Hall  E at 
Denderah  where  the  king  “is  constantly 
assimilated  to  Thoth”.)  In  any  event, 
the  oracles  were  written  down  as  the 
words  of  the  god  residing  in  the  shrine 
and  in  the  first  person. 

The  second  circumstance  is  thus  that 
the  oracles,  being  written,  must  have  been 
kept  somewhere,  and  where  more  natural- 
ly than  where  they  were  given?  And 
l 77] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

since  from  time  to  time  these  old  oracles, 
the  writings  of  Atum  and  Thoth,  or  what- 
ever god,  were  consulted,  it  is  natural  that 
the  place  of  consultation  should  be  the 
same  as  the  place  of  original  utterance. 
As  the  holy  of  holies  was  the  place  to 
which  the  king  priest  resorted  to  obtain 
an  oracle  so  it  would  naturally  be  the 
place  to  which  he  would  go  if  instead  of 
fresh  oracles  he  sought  only  knowledge  of 
a former  utterance,  and  naturally,  if  not 
necessarily,  the  place  where  all  divine  ut- 
terances which  might  be  sought  would 
be  kept.  A priori  it  is  hard  to  see  how 
the  priest  could  think  of  keeping  the  writ- 
ten oracles  in  any  other  place  than  the 
place  of  utterance,  and  if  in  the  holy  of 
holies,  where  else  than  in  the  shrine? 

Another  circumstance  is  the  fact  that 
the  form  of  the  shrine,  especially  in  the 
old  times,  so  often  resembled  the  book- 
chest  of  later  times — a fact  which  holds 
true  of  the  later  Jewish  synagogue  ark, 
[78] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

with  reference  to  the  Hebrew  shrine  or 
ark,  as  well  as  among  the  Egyptians. 

It  is,  however,  when  these  circum- 
stances are  put  in  connection  with  the 
general  doctrines  of  the  Egyptians  and 
interpreted  in  the  light  of  their  allegorical 
language  that  they  become  really  signifi- 
cant. 

In  the  first  place,  one  of  the  funda- 
mental and  common  religious  ideas  among 
the  Egyptians  was  that  the  voice  and  still 
more  the  written  word  was  the  god  in- 
carnate— the  word  was  the  god.  These 
written  words  were,  therefore,  regarded 
as  the  real  incarnation  of  the  divine  voice 
by  which  all  things  were  created,  which 
was  the  only  god.  The  spoken  word  was 
ephemeral  and  passing.  The  abiding 
word  was  the  written  record.  The  writ- 
ings were  the  real  god.  They  constituted 
his  person.  When  the  god  was  carried 
in  procession,  it  was  his  words  not  his 
statue  which  was  carried. 

[79] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

From  a bibliographical  standpoint, 
therefore,  the  conclusion  seems  irresistible 
that  the  original  simple  chest  was  a li- 
brary to  which  the  priest  resorted  when 
inquiry  was  made  as  to  the  will  of  the 
gods  and  in  which  he  placed  the  written 
oracles. 

Once  started  on  this  track  and  the  bibli- 
ographical evidences  from  the  nature  of 
Thoth  and  Seshait  swarm  to  confirmation. 
Take  the  case  of  Hathor  at  Denderah,  as 
given  above,  where  we  have  Thoth  unseal- 
ing the  door  and  Hathor  in  her  shrine 
assimilated  to  or  transformed  into  Seshait, 
the  goddess  of  writing,  the  mistress  of 
libraries.  As  a mere  matter  of  language 
it  could  hardly  be  plainer  if  it  were  said 
that  Hathor  in  her  shrine  was  Hathor’s 
oracles  in  writing. 

The  external  evidence  in  the  same  di- 
rection is  almost  equally  striking,  if  not 
in  direct  Egyptian  evidence,  at  least  in 
comparative  religions.  And  indeed  if 
Ebers’  remark,  that  boxes  of  writings  are 
[So] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 


often  found  in  Egypt  under  the  feet  of 
the  gods,  can  be  substantiated,  then  it 
seems  likely  that  at  some  period  the  shrine 
was  made  with  the  figure  of  the  god  on 
top  and  his  utterances  were  kept  in  the 
book-chest  on  which  he  stood.  Such  cases 
occur  to  the  writer  of  this  paper,  as  books 
under  images  of  Thoth  and  of  Anubis  and 
other  books  discovered  in  the  “secret 
shrine’’  of  a certain  goddess. 

The  case  among  the  Greeks  and  He- 
brews is  perhaps  more  specific,  for  a char- 
acter of  Aristophanes  speaks  of  having  a 
chest  full  of  oracles  and  the  word  for 
chest  is  that  used  in  the  Septuagint  of  the 
Hebrew  Ark.  And  it  is  clear  enough 
that  among  the  Hebrews  (whether  it  was 
500  or  1200  B.  C.  is  not  very  important 
to  the  argument)  the  definite  notion  of 
the  oracles  kept  in  a book-chest  beneath 
the  place  where  they  were  uttered  was 
well  understood,  as  appears  from  the  ac- 
count of  this  Ark  of  the  Testimonies  ( or 
oracles). 


[81] 


Ill 


SOURCES 

The  chief  sources  used  and  the  most 
accessible  and  best  sources  for  the  aver- 
age library  are  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
and  J.  A.  Breasted’s  Ancient  Records 
(Chicago  University  Press,  1905-7,  5 v.). 
The  latter  is  one  of  the  best  models  ex- 
isting, in  any  field  or  any  language,  of 
sources  made  available  for  practical  scho- 
larly use.  It  is  a gathering  up  of  all  the 
important  historical  inscriptions,  arranged 
in  chronological  order,  with  sufficient  ex- 
position, admirable  notes,  reliable  trans- 
lation, and  exhaustive  indexes.  It  is 
worth  all  the  other  scores  of  sources  used, 
on  the  side  of  the  historical  inscriptions. 

The  translation  of  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  which  has  been  most  used  is  that  of 
Renouf,  completed  by  Naville  (Paris, 
1907).  Renouf’s  insistance  on  translat- 
ing the  pivotal  word  Maat,  now  as  law 
[82] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

or  righteousness,  and  now  as  truth,  ac- 
cording to  circumstances,  happens  to  be 
confusing  and  misleading  in  this  particu- 
lar matter  of  the  book  aspects  but  the 
translation  is  probably  the  best  one  for 
the  general  student  and  in  most  matters. 
As  a matter  of  fact,  the  translation  as 
“right”  or  “law”  or  “righteousness”  is 
undoubtedly  correct  translation,  but  the 
word  “truth”  really  contains  in  English 
all  the  various  shades  which  the  translator 
intends  to  convey  by  his  varied  transla- 
tion and  the  “two  truths”  give  a much 
more  vivid  English  conception  of  what  is 
really  meant  than  “truth  and  law”  or 
“truth  and  righteousness”  even — at  least 
when  one  is  investigating  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  relation  of  truth  and  word 
and  book  and  library. 

In  addition  to  these  first  sources  the 
publications  of  the  Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  The  Egyptian  Research  Account 
and  other  current  exploration  accounts 
[83] 


EGYPTIAN  LIBRARIANS 

such  as  those  of  Mr.  Theodore  M.  Davis 
form  an  accessible  and  rich  source.  The 
books  of  Erman  and  Wilkinson  contain 
many  verbatim  quotations  and  are  found 
in  every  library.  Then  there  are  the  col- 
lected works  such  as  those  of  Renouf  and 
the  Bibliotheque  egyptologique.  After 
these  there  is  the  great  mass  of  splendid 
records  of  the  older  excavations  of  which 
Mariette’s  Denderah  (Paris,  1875),  has 
proved  one  of  the  more  fruitful  among 
the  older  sources.  As  introduction  to  the 
mythological  side,  the  Dizionario  di  Mitol- 
ogia  Egizia  of  Lanzone  (Torino  1881-6) 
is  still  the  most  helpful  aid  as  introduction 
to  research,  because  of  its  quoted  trans- 
lations and  superb  list  of  references  to 
sources.  It  is  unfortunate  that  this  is  now 
very  hard  to  get  and  costly.  The  best 
first  introduction  to  the  historical  side  is 
the  admirable  little  history  of  Breasted. 
The  somewhat  larger  illustrated  edition 
is  perhaps  better  for  the  general  library 
[84] 


but  hardly  better  for  orientation.  Petrie’s 
history  of  Egypt  contains  a vast  amount 
of  considerable  quotations  from  the  in- 
scriptions and  references  to  the  monu- 
ments so  that  it  is  a real  thesaurus  of 
translated  sources  and  is,  after  Breasted, 
the  readiest  source  for  what  may  be  called 
amateur  research. 


[85] 


IV 

INDEX 


Abydos,  31,  45,  58. 

Ahmose,  38. 

Alexandrian  library, 
6,  10. 

Amarna  archives,  Sec : 
Tel  el  Amarna. 

Amenhotep  III,  42. 

Amenhotep,  IV,  43. 

Amenhotep,  the  High 
Priest,  53-4. 

Amenhotep,  the  son 
of  Hapi,  42. 

Amon,  59,  72. 

Anna,  48. 

Annals,  22-23. 

Antiquities,  5. 

Anubis,  34. 

Apes,  19,  21. 

Arago,  60. 

Arbitration,  16. 

Archives,  9,  26,  44,  54, 
etc. 

Aristophanes,  81. 

Ark  (Hebrew),  68, 
79,  81. 

Ark  (Jewish  syna- 

gogue), 78. 

Assistants  of  Thoth, 
68  sq. 

Assistant  librarian  of 
the  king’s  archives, 
25- 


Assistant  librarian 
gods,  57,  69. 
Assurbanipal,  8,  9,  10, 
55- 

Astronomical  objects, 
59-  60. 

Babylonia,  5,  44,  76. 
Balances,  22,  33,  69. 
Beer  hall,  52. 
Binenvviese,  50. 
Book-chest,  2,  73,  74, 
78,  80,  81. 
Book-gods,  2,  13. 

Book  of  days,  23. 
Book  of  the  Dead,  15, 
58,  71,  72,  82. 
Books  of  the  law,  41. 
Books  of  Thoth,  14, 
57,  67,  71,  72. 
Boxes  of  writings,  80. 
Bread,  69. 

Breasted,  J.  A.,,  82, 

84. 

Cabinet,  71. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  16. 
Case  of  Books.  See 
Book-chest. 
Catalogues,  70,  73. 
Chest.  See  Book- 
chest. 

Chief  judge,  41. 

Chief  librarian  of  the 


[87] 


INDEX 


palace  archives,  26- 
27- 

Chief  scribe  of  the 
king’s  writings,  26. 

Chufu,  3. 

Clemens  Alexandri- 
nus,  73. 

Colleges,  1. 

Confidential  writings, 
40- 

Council  of  thirty,  34. 

Crocodile  god,  58. 

Cynocephalous  apes, 
20,  22. 

David,  king,  54. 

Davis,  Theodore  M. 
84. 

Death,  62. 

Dedkere-Isesi,  26. 

Denderah,  65,  70,  73, 
77,  80,  84. 

Diodorus,  8. 

Divine  book,  43. 

Divine  words,  3,  43. 

Double  chest,  68. 

Drink,  19,  69. 

Edfeu,  73. 

Education,  17. 

Egypt,  5. 

Egypt  Exploration 
Fund,  83. 

Egyptian  Research 
Account,  83. 

Enna,  48. 


Equinox,  20,  22. 
Erman,  84. 

Food,  19. 

Forty  rolls,  41. 

Forty  “skins,”  41. 
Future  life,  62. 
Greece,  5. 

Greek,  5. 

Greeks,  76. 

Hall  of  Books,  2,  13. 
Hall  of  Records,  40. 
Hall  of  the  Two 
Truths,  19. 
Hammamat  quarries,. 
28,  53- 

Harem  conspiracy,  48. 
Harkefti,  35. 

Harnack,  Ad.,  56. 
Hathor,  14,  57,  59, 
65,  66,  68,  80. 
Hatshepsut,  37,  38. 
Heliopolis,  23,  36,  37. 
Henhathor,  25. 
Hermes,  13. 
Hieroglyphics,  31,  36. 
Hittites,  44,  76. 

Holy  of  holies,  66,  73, 
76,  78. 

Horus,  34,  35,  42,  61, 
62. 

House  of  Books,  2,  3, 
24- 

House  of  sacred  writ- 
tings,  49,  50,  51,  53. 


[88] 


INDEX 


written  by  Thoth, 
72. 

Lanzone,  21,  84. 

Law,  18. 

Learning,  17. 

Leather  roll,  9,  30,  41. 

Librarian-architect, 

24. 

Librarian  of  the  sac- 
red writings,  27. 

Librarian  of  the  sec- 
ret books  of  Thoth, 
24- 

Librarians,  8,  12,  31, 
37,  43,  49,  SO,  51, 
55- 

Librarians  of  the 
gods,  10. 

Library,  7,  36,  43,  70. 

Library  at  Denderah, 
7L  73- 

Library  at  Edfu,  73. 

Library  gods,  57. 

Library  history,  6. 

Library  of  Ramses,  II, 

8. 

Library  of  sacred 
writings,  73. 

Library-schools,  4. 

Library  scribe,  4. 

Library-universities,  I, 
4- 

Lion-god,  60. 

Lion  goddess,  20. 


House  of  writings,  36. 
Hyksos,  37. 

Ibis,  19. 

Ikhnaton,  8,  43. 
Immortality,  63. 
Inferior  scribe  of  the 
king’s  records,  25. 
Isesi,  26. 

Isis,  67. 

Jews,  76. 

Joseph,  37. 

Judea,  5. 

Judge,  27. 

Justice,  17. 

Karnak,  38. 

Keeper  of  books,  2. 
Keepers  of  the  house 
of  rolls  (books),  45. 
Keepers  of  the  viziers’ 
records,  40. 

Khenu,  28. 

Khui,  28. 

King  as  god,  59. 
King-priest.  78. 
King-priest,  64,  76. 
King’s-house,  35. 
King’s  librarian,  52. 
King’s  scribe  of  the 
archives  of  Paha- 
roah,  47. 

Kush,  46,  47. 

Lady  of  libraries,  13. 
Lady  of  the  books 


[89] 


INDEX 


Logos,  15. 

Lord  of  Truth,  22. 

Maat,  1 7,  31,  32,  35, 
44,  66,  82. 

Magic,  16,  51. 

Magic  roll,  49,  51. 

Mai,  49,  52. 

Mariette,  65,  71,  84. 

Master  of  the  books, 
48. 

Master  of  all  ward- 
robes, 29,  44. 

Master  of  secret 
things,  26,  36,  39, 
41- 

Master  of  secret 
things  of  the  ‘di- 
vine words’  (hiero- 
glyphics), 35- 

Master  of  secret 
things  of  the  house 
of  sacred  writings, 
31,  35- 

Master  of  secret 
things  of  the  palace, 
44- 

Master  of  the  king’s 
writings,  31. 

Master  of  the  king’s 
writings  of  the 
(royal)  presence, 
35- 

Master  of  the  rolls,  48. 

Master  of  all  secrets, 
36. 


Masters  of  all  sec- 
rets, 71. 

Masters  of  secret 
things,  70, 

Medical  papyri,  9. 
Mehi,  26. 

Mehurit,  69. 
Mentuhotep,  31,  32,  34, 
35,  36. 

Mercury,  13. 

Messui,  49. 

Missing  link,  21,  22. 
Mitannians,  44. 

Moon,  20,  60. 

Moon  god,  13,  22. 
Moses,  44,  45. 

Nabu,  13. 

Names  of  the  gods, 
59- 

Naos,  75. 

Naville,  82. 

Nebet,  28. 

Neferhor,  46,  47. 
Neferhotep,  36,  43. 
Nefirikere,  9. 

Nefrure,  39. 

Neith,  57. 

Nekhen,  32,  35,  44- 
Nekonetkh,  25. 
Nennofre,  1. 
Nephthys,  14,  57,  59. 
Oneny,  52. 

Oracles,  65,  76,  77,  78, 
80,  81. 

Osiris,  15,  18,  58. 

[90] 


INDEX 


Overseer  of  the  king’s 
records,  28. 

Palace  library,  8,  9,  45, 
55- 

Palace  school,  3,  4,  45. 
Palermo  stone,  23. 
Palestine,  44. 

Papyri,  68. 

Papyrus  Rollin,  51. 
Pebekkamen,  51. 
Pebes,  52. 

Penhuibin,  51. 

Pepi  I,  28,  30. 

Pepi  II,  18,  30. 
Peremhab,  49. 

Petrie,  W.  F.,  85. 
Peyes,  50,  52. 
Pharoah’s  Scribe  of 
rolls,  54. 

Philo,  15. 

Philosophy  of  books, 
and  libraries,  11. 
Pithecanthropos,  22. 
Piyay,  47. 

Place  of  the  records, 

8. 

Place  of  writings,  26. 
Plato,  15. 

Portable  cabinet,  71. 
Portable  cases,  9. 
Portable  shrine,  65,  73, 
74- 

Privy  council,  55. 
Prophet,  38,  70. 


Prophet  librarian,  57. 
Ptah,  72. 

Ra,  14,  18,  58,  59,  60, 
67. 

Ramesseum,  13. 
Ramose,  43. 

Rampolla,  56. 

Ramses,  II,  8,  44,  45. 
Ramses  III,  48,  49. 
Ramses  IV,  53. 
Ramses  IX,  53,  54. 
Ramses-eshehab,  53. 
Record  office,  27. 
Records,  42. 

Records  of  the  house 
of  sacred  writings, 
53- 

Records  of  tribute,  47. 
Recorders,  41. 
Rekhmire,  40,  41. 
Renouf,  P.  C.  P.,  82, 
84. 

Research  work,  7. 
Resurrection,  63. 
Righteousness,  17,  83. 
Rolls,  36,  43,  si,  54. 
Rolls  of  the  house  of 
Osiris,  36-37. 

Sacred  books,  43,  72. 
Sacred  college,  4. 
Sacred  writings,  14, 
73- 

St.  John,  15. 

Sakkara,  28. 


INDEX 


Sanctification  by 
words,  64. 
Sand-dwellers,  34. 
Sceptre,  70. 

Schools  for  sacied 
scribes,  45. 

Scribe,  4. 

Scribe  of  the  archives 
of  Pharoah,  46. 
Scribe  of  the  archives, 

49,  52. 

Scribe  of  the  house  of 
sacred  writings,  49, 

50,  53- 

Scribe  of  the  king’s 
records,  25,  28. 
Scribe  of  the  gods,  64. 
Scribe  of  the  sacred 
Book,  23,  24,  30. 
Scribes  of  the  hiero- 
glyphics, 36. 

Scribe  of  Pharoah’s 
records,  47. 

Scribes  of  recorders, 
41- 

Secret  shrine,  66 
Seal  of  writing,  27 
Secret  writings,  12, 
29,  36.  39,  57,  7i,  75- 
Sehetepibre,  35. 
Scnezemib,  26,  27. 
Senmut,  37,  39,  55. 
Seshait,  1,  2,  11,  13, 


14,  20,  23,  24,  57,  59. 
65,  66,  67,  80. 
Sesostris,  I,  23,  30,  31. 
Set,  61,  62. 

Seti,  46,  47. 

Seti  I,  45. 

Seti  II,  44,  47,  48. 
Seven  assistants,  19. 
Seven  divine  masters, 
68,  69. 

Seven  Rishis,  69. 
Shedmeszer,  50. 
Shrine,  65,  78. 
Shrine-library,  73. 
Shu,  22,  58. 

Siptah,  46. 

Spirit  of  Truth,  64. 
Statue,  74. 

Stretching  the  cord, 
23,  24. 

Sub-librarians,  19. 
Sun-god,  18,  31. 
Symbol  of  Life,  70. 
Syria,  44. 

Tale  of  two  brothers, 
48. 

Tank  of  Flame,  70. 
Tattu,  58. 

Tefnut,  14,  57. 
Tel-el-Amarna  archi- 
val library,  44. 
Temple  library,  9,  45, 
55,  70,  73- 


[92] 


INDEX 


Teynakhte,  52. 

Thebes,  37,  42. 

Thirty-six  or  forty- 
two  books,  65. 

Tholh,  2,  11,  12,  13, 
14,  15,  16,  17,  18, 
19,  22,  32,  43,  46,  57, 
58,  59,  60,  62,  63, 
64,  66,  69,  72,  74,  77, 
78,  80. 

Thutmose  I,  38. 

Thutmose  III,  23,  37, 
38,  39- 

Thutmosids,  38. 

Tiy,  48. 

Treasury  school,  4. 

Truth,  17,  19,  67,  83. 

Tuat,  18. 

Turn,  22. 

Two  truths,  17,  83. 

University  librarian,  3. 


Usemare-Meriamon 
(Ramses  III),  51. 

Userkaf,  25. 

Vatican  library,  56. 

Vizier,  26,  27,  28,  31, 
54- 

Vizier’s  hall,  42. 

Vizier’s  librarians,  41. 

Vizier’s  records,  40. 

Voice,  79. 

Wardrobe,  35. 

Water  and  bread  of 
life,  64. 

Wilkinson,  84. 

Writing  ape,  21. 

Writings  of  Atum,  36, 
78. 

Writings  of  the  pro- 
phets, 39. 

Word,  64,  79. 

Zau,  28,  30. 


[93] 


f 


1122  .5.R52 
Some  old  Egyptian  librarians, 


1 1012  00147  3570  > 


